Diving with friends

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

This years been pretty nasty as far as weather goes :(, and due to work schedule and some minor work on the boat, we finally got out after almost a month.:thumps:

I got to meet a great guy this summer in Rhode island. Keith Richardson who rented out his kayak to my nationals partner Eric Salado. That kayk must have had major Mjo, because Eric placed fourth in the nationals and we took sixth.:thumps:

Keith is in town with his girlfriend and since the boat hasn't been run and the weather was bearable, we decided to get out. Also one of our gang, Matt Smith is being deployed and won't be back for six months. This is his last time to dive with our gang. We also needed some fish to take to his going away dinner tonight. He leaves on Tues.
We met at the Kaneohe pier and the first thing we did was
head to our ono alley. We spent three hours to no avail. Tons of bait but no pelagics.

Our next line of business was to put Matt or Keith on some fish. By then Keith was feeling down due to our choppy waters :(, so Joe, Matt and I went to the closest Ulua house.

Its in 55 ft of water and we barely made it down after not diving for so long. Matt was on the up side of the hole and I was on the down side. Going into the hole there were about a dozen uluas. Four were good sized and the rest fifteen lbs or smaller. Not one to be picky, I shot the closest big one and it ran towards the other end of the house. I blocked the hole and while the others were going nuts in there, I could see Matt trying to line up on one. He was trying to shoot my ulua and when he saw that it was shot already, the other uluas were leaving as I was out of air and going up. The great partner he is, he went back down and second shot it for me and I took Joe's gun and finished it off. Joe went down and unclipped he line for me and we got it up pretty easy. That's the great thing about diving with friends. We all want to make sure the fish is landed and help each other out. Joe's shaft got bent, but we landed the fish.
Back at the boat, Keith got to see what our trophy fish looks like. :thumps: Theres is the tasty Striped bass.

We did a reef dive next to get some fish for Matt's dinnner party. We ended up with a few Kumu's and Joe shot some nice uhus to cook as sweet sour fish nuggets.
On the way back home we looked at one more Ulua house to see if Matt could score before he leaves. Matt went down first and tried to line up on a nice ulua. It ran out the hole and then turned back. I was on that end and shot it before it went back in. So we had enough fish to give away to neighbors and freinds.
Diving doesn't get better than that. New friends, old friends and shooting fish!

Aloha,Daryl

[CAMPILLOS]

Nice story, and cool pictures:thumps:

[PrincessSlaya!]

Oh my! Daryl, way to cool! Looks like you all had to much fun. The water looks so blue. Thanks for sharing your diving experiences they are to awesome!

[U/C Spearo]

What a great time !!!

[Smudge]

Thank you so much Daryl! I had an absolute blast as always!

Bummer that I just couldn't get a shot off on an ulua, just wasn't my day! It's pretty tough knowing that I have to deploy for the next six months, but also knowing that I'll be back in Sept makes it ok.

I'm going to try to dive as much as possible while I'm gone. With the port visits we have scheduled I should be able to get in the water in some cool places.

Even though I didn't get an Ono this season, I'll be here for two more winters so I'm sure I'll get it done before I transfer!

Thanks again and see you guys at dinner!!

[Bill McIntyre]

You guys are killing me. Nancy and I will be in Honolulu from late Sunday through Thursday, but we fly standby with just carry-on luggage, so no room for dive gear.

[Smudge]

Oh that's no excuse Bill! You know Daryl has extras of everything!! Just bring a 3 mil wetsuit and mask and snorkle!

[Bill McIntyre]

I don't even have a 3 mm wetsuit, but even if I did, it would take up most of the room in my carry-on bag.

[DarenDeath]

Diving doesn't get better than that. New friends, old friends and shooting fish!


:thumps:Absolutely:thumps:

[Smudge]

I don't even have a 3 mm wetsuit, but even if I did, it would take up most of the room in my carry-on bag.


Excuses, excuses!:D Have fun while you guys are out here. Bummed that I'll already be gone when you get into town, but I'll see you in Sept when I swing through SD on leave after this West-Pac....

[Akula]

Thank you so much Daryl! I had an absolute blast as always!

Bummer that I just couldn't get a shot off on an ulua, just wasn't my day! It's pretty tough knowing that I have to deploy for the next six months, but also knowing that I'll be back in Sept makes it ok.

Try 15 months.........

[Smudge]

No thanks! I take my deployments half a year at a time. But in 15 years, I've spent a lot of half years away!! Haha!!

But thank you for doing what you do though!! You guys with boots on the ground are the real heroes in this deal. You have my utmost respect!! Keep yor head down and stay safe!

[Akula]

hahaha i mean its always a lotto ticket, some of you guys with the 6 months get the back to back crap and that sucks just as bad as being gone for a year N back for a year then going again.

ugh, when will all this crap end so i can just enjoy my corona and shoot fish.

[Qdiver911]

Thank you for doing what you do, so we can do what we do. Godspeed, look forward to your stories when you return safely.

Q

[Akula]

Thanks for your wishes! Im sure smudge agrees, everyone who supports us and sends their best wishes, theres just no way to thank you all enough!

Cant wait to get back home and start shooting fish with all the great people ive met here and on HSD :D

[palmerbasskilla]

Daryl
it's too bad i was'nt feeling well but it was still nice to get out with you guys and watch you work this just gives me another reason to come back(next time i get an ono)i know hilary had fun watching you feed chompers,and i have to say that food on monday was some of the best i had the whole trip
thanks to daryl,joe,pete,and matt
you got a new friend in RI

keith&hilary

[wlkconsulting]

I'll be hitting Hawaii this summer (Honolulu) 1 week mini vacation..1st timmer...any one want to show me some spots??

[Blesum]

That depends... You gonna bring a Killshot system with you? :D

-Paul

[Daryl Wong]

We'll its been almost a month since we last touched water. It got nasty right after Keith (palmbasskiller) left and our gills have about dried up.
Today the weather laid down. It is the last day before the next front comes in. Already there is flood watches for Oahu this weekend.
I was able to convince my young dive partner pete to get out. Even for a short day. The water was so glassy, I decided to launch at the pier five minutes from my house and drive the 12 miles to the dive spot rather than drive an hour over the hill to Kaneohe and then 1/2 hour to the
dive spot.
The water was like a lake, but we found that with all the previous wind and rain, there was murk layer. In some spots you could barely see the bottom.
So now it was onto plan B. Check out Ulua houses. The first two were empty, and then the third one has a loner. One shot to the head and it was in the boat. With something to fillet, we spent the rest of the day looking for our usual parrot fish and goat fish.
With our late start, the day went by quickly and before we knew it, it was time to get back before the wind kicked back up. Good thing because by the time we were half way home the winds had increased and it got bumpy.
We ended up with a few Uhus, two kumus and a few other fish, and the one ulua. Its the second one this year and there will be more to come if we can get out more.
Like the saying goes, a bad day diving is better than a good day a work.

ALoha,Daryl

[Blesum]

I thought I saw you guys as the wife and I drove by the pier for dinner after signing our new lease this evening. I'm your new neighbor as of this weekend - Sort of. I'll be blue-water hunting at the Big Island (tournament) while the wife starts the move-in process with a painting party this weekend. She does not like white walls. We will be living 2 blocks from the pier at the end of Summer Street. I'll be sure to send you an invite to the house warming party on the 18th. You bring the onos! :thumps:

-Paul

[settingsteel]

The smile says it all:thumps:

[Sin City Slayer]

Paul & Daryl are both solid guys on our small ROCK, those of you who don't know them, should.

Aloha,

SCS

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Guys,

I had the pleasure of having two friends from California. They are my dive partner Pete Wolfgrams lifelong dive buddies. To say these guys are like the three amigos is an understatement. I hope I can dive as long as they are diving. Roy Beck at 78 years old has the most experience. Even diving the Nationals in the 60's. He knew Terry Maas when Terry was just 16. Now that is going back a ways.
Bob and Pete have been diving together along with Roy on the north coast of Cal all the way down to Baja before anyone knew about that place. They would go down for a week or two at a time. Cabo was just a shanty town then.
I met Bob over 15 years ago on a blue water trip and he showed everyone up that trip with a 256 lb tuna!

Bob and Roy flew in for the weekend and Pete has been taking them out diving. This weekend the weather was calm and glassy so we ventured across the channel where I had a few friends staying for the inter island Kayak race.
The old timers had a blast. They showed that there is still A lot of life and experience in them.

They all shot personal best fish for diving in Hawaii and also showed young Ryan Ho at 12 that guys older than his grandpa can still hang with the young guys!

Ryan Ho who is fast becoming a good diver showed that he can shoot fish with his speargun and his three prong pole spear. Dad Ron wants him to learn the stalking technigues so has him us the polespear first and then later use his speargun.

It can't get better than this. Old and young everyone showed that they can still have fun and get some fish to eat tonight at the restaurant. Half the fun of spearing the fish is getting to eat it the next night. The whole gang and a few who couldn't make it will get to enjoy the dive lies of the three Amigos as they argue who shot the biggest fish and who found who on the beach and started them into diving!


Aloha,Daryl

[kill shot]

I dove with Roy and Bob on a trip in Sea of Cortez many years back. Roy is a classic guy to say the least. Non stop comedy!!!


Eric

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Guys,

The weather is still holding nice and a good friend Troy Williams is in town. We've emailed and kept in touch over the years through three guns, and three countries that he's lived in. Currently he's in Guam.
While in town for some leg work. We finally got to meet and get in a dive. He's shot fish allover the world but wanted to see what diving on Oahu was like. Its the end of our Ono season but that is what he wanted to check out. So we decided to do our normal spots and maybe get to see Chomper our pet turtle. Pete my dive partner wanted to check out his modified ono gun.
At the pier the water was like glass. No wind and clean water.

The first spot was our favorite spot. We've seen a lot of onos there this year and I shot a 65 lb on earlier in the season and last Sunday a another one at 32 lbs. The water was a little hazy due to all the rain last week, but still could see the bottom at 96 ft. Chomper came to the back of our boat to beg for food by the time we had geared up. We fed him some chum so he wouldn't bother us, but he's a bottomless pit.
At the under water pinnacle I looked over my right shoulder and was surprised to see a 50lb ono cruising by. It was ten ft away, but by the time I swung my gun, it was in front and only had a look at its tail. It was on a mission. Didn't even veer back to check out the flashers I had. We'll a good sign still.

Chomper still was hungry, and after an hour of drifting back over the pinnacle, we went back in to the boat. We had shot a few small Aj's for chum so we fed Chomper a fish. He's getting pretty heavy now and with a lifespan of up to 150 years, he has a lot of fish to eat yet.

Next stop was Ulua houses. Troy aka Lonefin has shot hundreds of Uluas all over the world. Indonesia, South pacific and even when he lived on Maui a few years. But I love his attitude when he said " you can never shoot to many Uluas". They are such a fighter and challenge. They bust gear, cut lines, cable and trash shafts. The first stop was a house in 57ft of water and I was awed at how fluid he was in the water. It was like watching a fish! We both glided down to the house. I was on one end and he did the main entrance. The house looked promising with with all the bait fish outside the hole, but no one was home. Next stop was the show house. This was the ulua house featured on Speargun hunter. Its been an active house the last few months.

We anchored a few hundred feet from the house. We do this for a few reasons. One so that we don't alarm the fish with our boat and two , if another boat cruises by, they can mark that spot and find only flat ground and no fish. We dropped off Peter to shoot fish nearby and Troy and I did the long swim over to the house. I've been there so many times I navigate by looking at the bottom and using landmarks of the ledges and coral heads on the bottom. Having been to this house many times over the last 30 years its like hunting in your back yard.
Troy was loaded up for bear. He had the 55in GR gun with shaft, slip tip and 600 lb cable. I had the back up gun. When we got to the house, he did his breath up and glided effortlessly down to the end of the ledge. I took the exit to block. Arriving at the top of the ledge, I saw a black shadow on the other end. Alright, Troy can whack a big one. Troy couldn't see the fish because he hadn't gotten down enough to see to the back of the ledge. The ulua slowly came back towards me and I blocked it form leaving. It turned back to Troy but when I looked, Troy was already going back up. I swam under the ledge and chased the Ulua down and as it turned to go out, I fired. It dropped the fish and just as I put tension on the line, it bolted out of the hole! It ran along the outside of the ledge and then turned back around and came back in. Troy saw the fish and gave me the gun to second shoot it. I put another shot into its head while it was still pulling against the 300 mono which was now all tangled in the coral. Good thing, since the mono cut and the ulua now came out of the hole and was fee swimming. It was hurt bad but we both got the fish up. Troy went back and untangled the shooting line and we boated the fish. It is one of the bigger ones we've gotten in the last few years. Previous to this fish the biggest was 72 lbs. At home this one topped out at 85 lbs. Without Troys team work we wouldn't have landed this fish. Its great to dive with good friends and tag team the big fish.
Hopefully we can get out one more time before he leaves. If not then dive in Indonesia with him one day.. Diving with friends....it doesn't get better than that!

Aloha,Daryl

[deepdown]

Troy is a character alright! Amazing how he charges on with the lone fin...

Great fish Daryl

[campbellc0321]

For a minute there I thought I read the water was a little hazy? Really cool pics. thanks for sharing.

[Smudge]

That's HUGE!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Matt,

The guys said to say hi. The next time back you have first dibs on which house and where.
We're off the the holy land this weekend. Keep in touch and let us know how the diving it on the other side.

Great to have good friends.

Aloha,Daryl

[Smudge]

Thanks Daryl, tell everyone I said hello. Still haven't been able to dive yet. One of these days I hope we actually pull in to a port where I can dive!!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha SB,

Well, the weather is still beautiful or "Malia" as the locals say. Light winds, flat seas. With our usual gang reunited again we ventured across the channel to our favorite hunting grounds. Our crew was Diver Joe, Kaipo, Little David,Ron, and Claude. The ride over was smooth and Claude didn't even get sick like he usually does.

Our first dive was a short one. We didn't know which way the current would be running so we didn't drop off the divers too far from the boat. With crystal clear water, the bottom was alive in color. The fish were all over the place. We got back to the boat with nice stringers of various parrot fish, snappers, goatfish and jacks.

On the second dive Kaipo saw a nice ulua following the drop off. It went into a small ledge and Kaipo dropped down and shot the Ulua in the head, just missing the brain. It went nuts, not to mention that it bent his shaft into a 90 degree bend. This was Kaipo's biggest ulua yet!:thumps:

Joe, on the third dive, not to be out done, swam over to another ledge with a cave and it too had two nice uluas. With careful aim Joe quickly stoned the smaller of the two. Not a bad start! :D It was fun to have the gang back on the boat. We ate a good lunch and then worked out way back home drift diving. This was a going to be a short day so we could get back home early. One of our friends was coming through town and we were going to meet for dinner. There was one last spot to check out before we headed back.

The last spot, which we called Lionel's rock was a favorite of ours to finish up. It has two slabs to check out. My cousin Ron wanted to try out his new sony camera so I grabbed the ulua hybrid with 600lb cable and we swam on over. Little David brought his gun to second shoot if we needed. At the first slab two Uluas were playing around the entrance and then went inside. The first drop they were on the other side. The second drop the bigger one was right there and a head shot didn't stop it, but with David's gun it was put away.
Back at the boat we took it off the shafts and with one more hole to check. Ron, David and Claude were down for the count with ear squeezes. Its been a while since they've been out. So I reloaded and at the second slab a small one way playing around. When it went under the slab I got down and shot it as it was trying to leave on the other side. It went out of the hole and then back in. It was all tangled and spinning around. Diver Joe got down and put a nice head shot. Good thing, because it spun the slip tip adaptor right off and ended up on Joe's shaft. After untangling the lines we got back to the boat. The sliptip was still in its head, but I lost my adaptor.:eek:
Great dive, nice fish and great company. Good to have the gang back on the boat. As Pete would say...."Lets go Diving!":thumps:

We'll wait for you Matt!

Aloha,Daryl

[Bill McIntyre]

Daryl said he ran off to work without posting the photos, so here they are from his post to the freedivelist.

[Smudge]

Very nice Daryl! I can't wait to make that crossing again. That's awesome the Claude didn't get seasick!! I bet he was stoked!! Bummer about the ear squeezes. Sounds like me getting a thoracic squeeze when I went over with you! No fun ruining your day of diving on the first dive!

[Blesum]

I was out that day as well, but am still not cleared for diving so I was stuck trolling around Kahala for not even a nibble. Lots of boat traffic out there. On my way back in, the motor mounts broke and I had to swim/walk the PWC back to the ramp. Ugh. Very relieved I was not way out there or at Molokai. :eek:

Glad to see you guys did well. :cool:

-Paul

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

I had the pleasure of meeting Al Laguno a few years ago at the Blue Wild dive Expo. www.thebluewild.com It was his gun that I was working on in the shop when Sheri Day's Speargun hunter filmed me working on a gun in the shop.
Fast forward a year later, Al's in town here for some R&R with his lovely wife. Of course we had to get out diving. What better excuse is there to go on Mother's day!
This time Little David, and Pete were up to diving a short day.
The weather was a little windy in the morning and we gave it a good try for the Onos but the season is pretty much over till next fall. So we had to take Al to visit out buddy Chomper. He's our local greeter to all the visitors who come through. As usual within 5 minutes of anchoring he pops his head up, sees the boat and motors on over to us. By then we have a few nice fillets of fish from our last dive trip to feed him Al had a blast with Chomper and we got some great shots and video. But Al was here to see what the big thing was about hunting Uluas like on the Spearhunter show. :thumps:
So we pulled up and did the Ulua hunt. The water was staring to get a little less choppy and the wind laying down. It was also the second day after the full moon and the start of Ulua fishing season. This means that chances are pretty good that we might see something. Better yet if we can land one.:thumps:
Al is mainly a scuba diver who loves to freeshaft and is looking to start into freediving. I recommended he take the Performance freedive course from Kirk Krack. www.performancefreediving.com
It will help him gain years of experience rather than learn by trial and error. Its made a difference in my diving.
Today was lesson day. We are going out again Wed and Al wanted to see and learn how to hunt Uluas. The first ulua house was empty, but he got to see how to approach the Ulua hole and look into it. Hunting uluas is similar hunting on land. You want to use all the cover you can and not let the uluas see you first.
At the second spot, there was a small Omilu ulua or Blue star trevally. These uluas don't get very big, but are prized for their great tasting fillets. Sheri Daye owns the womens World record at 20. lbs and A local diver here named Kama Kobayashi owns the men's world record at 25 lbs. Both were shot with a hybrid. :D The Ulua in the hole came out the other end and then returned back. It felt safer in the hole rather than leaving it. This gave me a second drop on the hole and I got a nice shot on it. Lesson one , be patient.
At the next spot the current was ripping due to the moon phase. After what seemed like hours swimming in place, David and I got a good drop on the hole. Inside the dark ulua house I could see three small Omilus about the same size as the first one we landed. When they came down to my end, a stone shot brought it down. Lesson two, be patient.
This was going to be a short day since Pete had to get back early to take care of his dog and his neighbors dog who he was dog sitting. So it was onto the last house.
There are many ulua houses to check, but we try to not always hit the same spot. We hadn't been to this spot in about six months so I was curious to see if anyone was home. The water by now was glass and super clean. After a short swim to the spot and breathing up correctly like we learned in the PFI course I made my way down to the Ulua house. At first glance it looked empty until I dropped down furhter to look all the way across the slab. On the far side I could see a dark shape swimming in a small circle. I waited a little bit and it slowly circled to my side of the slab un aware of my presense. It swam right up to me and I stoned it. Lesson three, be patient.
We took a few pictures and then it was back to the pier. On our digital scale the uluas were 11,12, and 53 lbs. Wed is Al's final exam.
Later that evening a few of the dive gang met Dave, Al and I at our favorite all you can eat Korean BBQ. Sharing stories, pictures and good times with friends is what its about.:thumps:

Aloha,Daryl

[Bill McIntyre]

Damn, I'm going to have to spring for a ticket one of these days. Flying standby is cheap, but I can't bring diving gear in a carry on.

I sure can vouch for that Korean BBQ place. Nancy and I loved eating there with the gang on our trip a few months ago.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,


My friend AL Lugano from Miami has been here to learn about Hawaiian style diving and hunting Uluas. He hopes to convert over to freediving to go along with his scuba diving. He now knows that if he can shoot fish in Hawaii, he can shoot fish anywhere. The water is still nice and we decided to go out one more time before he leaves. Lucky for us, Little David is on vacation and would be coming along too. He's my good luck charm and he's been there to help land some of my biggest fish. :thumps:
The plan was for Al to check out the shallower houses and I'll get to the deeper ones. The first house in 44ft was empty. Sunday we shot a 12 lb one but today no one was home. The next stop was the deep hole as we call it, but compared to some of the wrecks my Florida buddies take me too, it is shallow. Its 65ft to the top of the hole and 75ft to the bottom. A few weeks ago, it was full yet my other partner, Diver Joe forgot to rebend the shaft straight from the last ulua and he had a shot that went around the fish! Today it was empty, but thats how it goes.
The third house is called Pete's house because it only had a number before Pete came back to the boat and said there was a huge ulua in the hole. Its on the deep side for Al, so I went down to check it out.
On the far end of the hole I could see a shape making slow circles. There was an ulua hanging out. Rather than swim through and spooking the ulua, I returned to the surface and took a few minutes to breath up and get ready for the nest dive. No matter how many uluas I've shot over the years, it still makes my heart speed up and it took a few minutes to calm down and make a dive. After peeking into the long tube, I could see the ulua was now on the other end! Rather that go back up and hae the ulua leave while getting ready to go back down, I decided to swim through. There was small pillar in the tube that i used for cover and swam right up to the ulua. It was already starting to leave and I hit it just behind the gill plate. Blood came out of its mouth and it took off past me while I went in the other direction back out of the hole. On the surface we could see that it was hung up on the coral and on its side. With little David's help, I got back down and put a kill shot. Without the help of a reel, and 600 lb cable, hunting uluas would be a crap shoot. These fish are so strong that they snap 500 lb cable quite easy.:eek:
Later on our way back home we checked out the last house that we got the 53 lb ulua Sunday. I peeked under and there was a small one in there. Al could just make it to this house so he took the side the ulua was and I went over to the other side to wait. when we both got down, the ulua had moved to one side and Al couldn't see it.; I could so I swam over and got a nice head shot. Another one for the reel vs floatline argument.
We came in early so that we could take AL to eat Hawaiian food, try a shaved ice cone and have a Malasada for desert. Before picking up his lovely wife Ida, We stopped for a refreshing Shaved Ice cone. All got a Rainbow and I my favorite is strawberry. It is so refreshing and hits the spot after a long day in the sun.
I hope to see Al again and we''ll have to get him a big one next time.:thumps:

Aloha,Daryl

[clavinr]

Awesome!!!

[OahuFreediver]

Currently in Iraq myself cant wait to get back to oahu so i can get back in the water! Way to dry out here! Nice Story and Great looking fish!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Guys,

Finally got to get out after 7 weeks of no diving. Did a short stint in Kona with the Performance freedive Advanced class, but no spearing. The gang was over on Sat and everyone wanted to have a fish fry. Only problem with a Hurricane slated to pass by on Tues, no one wanted to go out to shoot fish. Diver Joe Strona and I were the only two to chance it. Good thing.

The weather was beautiful. Light winds, small swells and clear. Since its the moon phase for Uluas, we could three prong fish and check out ulua houses. We first stopped on our Kole (small surgeon fish) spot. We quickly loaded up two gallon baggies of Kole. Yes the fish are small, but tasty. In ancient Hawaiian days, they were reserved for the Alii or royal family. No commoners were allowed to eat them. To describe Kole, It would be like shooting a bucket of Crappie or Bluegills and then having a big fish fry with them. Tasty!

After we loaded up, we went to a few houses. Most of the Ulua houses were empty until the last house. Joe dropped down one side and I took the other side of the big round slab. Before I could stick my head under, a big black head came up to me and slowly turned. I didn't even aim, just put the spear by the head and fired. The shaft went all the way through and I now had a pissed of fish on the cable. Diver Joe came by and with his help we got a second shot to quiet the ulua down. I pulled his shaft out so it wouldn't get bent, while he held the fish. The second the shaft came out, the ulua went beserk! Joe was doing the boogie with the Ulua as they spun around in the water. Later on the boat, Joe asked me if he had a scratch on his head. Not only did he have a scratch, it was 1 1/2 inches long and looked like a hatchet did it. The ulua have huge sharp scutes on the side of their tails and this one slapped him around. I was wondering why he pulled his knife and was stabbing the fish while I cranked up his reel line. Later that night he had a nice lump to go with the scratch. Good thing he has a Wong hat to cover it.

Diving with friends is fun. Not only does it make the day go by quickly, you also dive better knowing your partner is there to help out. We both took the PFI course together and know what to do and what to expect of each other when we dive. Thanks to Joe, most of the fish I shoot are taken with his help and back up. Another of the gang (Smudge) should be here soon from his deployment and we be back in action again! We'll give him first dibs on the best ulua house.

The fish was 50 lbs and thick. We cut it up and the gang all took some slabs of fish home. The Kole were fried crisply and we ate that along with Steamed MU (a progy and Parrot fish that Diver/Chef Joe made up on the grill. Hope the weather is better next week and we'll all get out to shoot more fish to fry. If not, we'll BBQ like we do every weekend.

Aloha,Daryl

[Smudge]

Nice one! I'm almost home! Stopping in Guam tomorrow. We were only supposed to stay one night but now it looks like we'll be there 2 days. Only thing is I have to work till about 3 or 4pm each day so I don't know if I'm going to get to dive! Got any friends on Guam who can do a quick afternoon hop??

[Blesum]

Nice fishy! I was on the Big Island for my 1-year wedding anniversary that weekend. Of course I went looking for uluas, but only found a papio... Bleh. :(

-Paul

[Flyingtiger]

I will be in Honolulu next week for 2 weeks working.
Any chance of getting a day to hook up on someones boat.
I will be doing a bunch of work at the Buca Di Beppo so i have the place to cook the fish.
just PM me.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Thought I'd squeeze a dive report before I head up to Florida to help instruct on a spearfishing course. The weathers been nasty lately and with two days of intermittent rain, it didn't look that good even with variable winds forecasted. But since it was my last weekend before I leave, Diver Joe and Chad Sutton decided to get out and see how it was. There's that saying..."you never know until you go!":thumps:
Driving to the pier it wasn't the prettiest weather. Rain and more rain beat down on my truck. :( We hurried and launched the boat and then waited in the cab for the pouring rain to stop. After five minutes we said lets go. The winds had died, but there was a big East swell which isn't good. You could see huge areas of white off colored water. Finding some clean water was going to be tough. After roaming around, we decided to hop on some ulua holes. They don't move and are easy to find if you know where they are.
The first stop was a hole in 44ft of water. Joe loaded up and I drifted to it and he slid in to check. He came up with a "one sign'" and I got my gear to help out. By the time I got to the hole it had ripped off. Joe said it was a solid shot to the head. These uluas have thick armored gill plates and bone in the head. Some times the slip tips don't penetrate all the way through and this is what probably happened. :(

Discouraged I said we'll check out another one a mile away.
This next hole is one of my favorites. It has produced the biggest uluas this year and also had the ulua I shot on the spearhunter show last year. Its a nice hole that has a lot of exits. Anchoring up seas of the hole, Joe and I found it and he took the ocean side exit and I took the land side. Its not deep and by the time I hit the edge, I had a big black head stick out from under the ledge. It saw me and quickly turned. By the time I hit the bottom, it was coming back at he to pass me on its way out. I didn't have time to aim and just point the gun "three prong style like a pole spear" and fired. It hit it in the head and was so close all the cable was bunched at the muzzle as the ulua passed me and then went back into the hole. The cable got caught in the muzzle and then the fish went nuts in the hole . I let go of the gun to get up and as I was watching, the gun on the edge of the ledge was being slammed into the ledge. Before I could get Joe's gun to put a kill shot in, the muzzle was ripped out of the CF barrel. Late I found out the handle was damaged too. The second shot did the fish in and I limped back to the boat with a muzzle less gun, cracked handle and the fish. Theres a great waranty on the gun so I'm not too worried. :D
Lucky our friend Kaipo had his gun on board so we had another gun to use.

Not wanting to break two guns, I told Joe on the next hole its all his. I'll go down and back up. The next hole called the round slab, is another producer. It had Sheri Daye's state record ulua when she came over to dive one year. Since then it has produced regularly. The last time I almost lost my gun when an ulua took all the line and then dragged the gun into the hole and out the other side, but thats another story. :eek:

At the round slab, Joe went down on one side and I went down on the other side. Inside the hole there was a big black ulua that was on my side, but as it turned and headed towards Joe's side I heard his gun go off and all hell broke loose. As the ulua came back around towards me, I shot it with Kaipo's gun and sliptip. It was still frisky, so I went back to the boat and got Chad's gun and put a kill shot into the ulua.
Joe started to pull his line out and his shaft came up without a fish. :eek: The Ulua had come off and was one Kaipo's line. Partnering up is the best way to make sure the success rate is better when hunting Uluas.
Joe went down and we got the fish to the boat. It was a fatty. With two fish and the water pretty green, we decided to get in early, meet the gang at the house an BBQ some ribs. :thumps:
We got some nice shots of the fish and then headed home.
Joe's Ulua was 61 lbs and my gun breaking ulua was 60. Tough day on gear but you never know until you go!

Aloha,Daryl

[headhunter561]

Theres a great waranty on the gun so I'm not too worried.

LOL great story Daryl!

[PrincessSlaya!]

Def a great story and great pics too! Aloha

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha ,

On the eve of my big day, Diver Joe asked if I wanted to do a fast dive after work. We both work Saturdays until noon. I get off at 1:pm. We had heard the Onos were showing up and wanted to see for ourselves. Joe had the boat loaded and waiting at the pier by the time I got home and loaded my gear. The winds were dropping and a light haze from the volcano called Vog was building up. This happens when the winds come from the south. The light wind is called a Kona wind.
Going around the corner to Joe's favorite spot, we dropped the "kelp Forrest" and our new toilet bowl bulb flasher. It was made after a flasher I saw my friends Daryl Balfour and Zak use in Costa Rica. My South African friends had one and it looked like a disco ball. But boy did it shoot off ribbons for sunlight.
Th first drop one Ono came in to check the teaser we had out but it wouldn't have anything to do with us. A hail Marty shot was the only shot. It left so we moved.
At the next drop three Onos came bye but they were sooo spooky.
Finally I saw Joe waving his arms with a small fish. I then saw the ono about 15-20 ft away. Slowly the ghost like shape of an Ono re appeared. I got down and could see Joe waving a shiny object to try and get the ono to come in. It was too smart. It slowly swam up towards the surface and I closed the gap. It was a long shot, but I took it and while thinking I missed, the shooting line started zipping past me. ten minutes later of gingerly bringing in the ono, Joe got over and put a kill shot in it. First ono of the season! An early B day present! Life doesn't get better than that. Fish, friends and clean water. Of course there is always tomorrow!

Aloha, Daryl

[So-Cal Spearo]

Aloha ,

On the eve of my big day, Diver Joe asked if I wanted to do a fast dive after work. We both work Saturdays until noon. I get off at 1:pm. We had heard the Onos were showing up and wanted to see for ourselves. Joe had the boat loaded and waiting at the pier by the time I got home and loaded my gear. The winds were dropping and a light haze from the volcano called Vog was building up. This happens when the winds come from the south. The light wind is called a Kona wind.
Going around the corner to Joe's favorite spot, we dropped the "kelp Forrest" and our new toilet bowl bulb flasher. It was made after a flasher I saw my friends Daryl Balfour and Zak use in Costa Rica. My South African friends had one and it looked like a disco ball. But boy did it shoot off ribbons for sunlight.
Th first drop one Ono came in to check the teaser we had out but it wouldn't have anything to do with us. A hail Marty shot was the only shot. It left so we moved.
At the next drop three Onos came bye but they were sooo spooky.
Finally I saw Joe waving his arms with a small fish. I then saw the ono about 15-20 ft away. Slowly the ghost like shape of an Ono re appeared. I got down and could see Joe waving a shiny object to try and get the ono to come in. It was too smart. It slowly swam up towards the surface and I closed the gap. It was a long shot, but I took it and while thinking I missed, the shooting line started zipping past me. ten minutes later of gingerly bringing in the ono, Joe got over and put a kill shot in it. First ono of the season! An early B day present! Life doesn't get better than that. Fish, friends and clean water. Of course there is always tomorrow!

Aloha, Daryl

Great fish Daryl, Happy birthday :D :beer:

[Blesum]

we dropped the "kelp Forrest" and our new toilet bowl bulb flasher. It was made after a flasher I saw my friends Daryl Balfour and Zak use in Costa Rica. My South African friends had one and it looked like a disco ball. But boy did it shoot off ribbons for sunlight.

Can we find out more about this - What does it look like?

Here's one I made last year, but it was a disaster. Used superglue to glue these bits of mirror on, every time it bounced on the deck of a boat or in my ski's hatch, a mirror or two would break off... :(

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/Blesum/Flasher/IMG_1188.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/Blesum/Flasher/IMG_1191.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/Blesum/Flasher/IMG_1202.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/Blesum/Flasher/IMG_1196.jpg

Been trying to find a heavy, small disco ball... :D

-Paul

[ROBERTO REYES]

Very pretty fish, nice day out at the disco.
Tasty Birthday present.

[Griswold]

Congrats on the birthday wahoo.

[Christo]

:bday: Happy birthday Daryl from Susan,Yasmin,Christo,Raj,the spearo gang and especially from Emma !:thumps::bday:
BTW congrats on a fine b/day present.:beer:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

Thanks for the nice words. Sometimes getting old sucks but most times its a matter of how you feel. I feel great. Life is good with friends, fish and many places to go. On my big day, Diver Joe, and my old buddy Claude who came out of semi retirement decided to get in a dive. We heard it was going to be nice again so we headed to our favorite grounds off Kaneohe.
The water had a slight chop and it was overcast, but pretty nice compared to what we normally go out in. The one thing we hadn't factored was the rain in the Koolau mountains. :( The run off was going out into the bay and had made the water cloudy. First spot was murked out. So plan B. We headed a mile out to one of the marker buoys and Joe and Claude got in. I could see a school of small Mahis hanging around but they wouldn't come in. Finally Claude shot a small one and held it while the school came in to check it out. Joe shot one and of course Murphy's Law went into effect. A 50 lb ono came up from the deep within 10ft of Claude and Joe. I could hear them grunting and trying to load their guns with the small Mahis still on the shafts. By the time they got ready the Ono had drifted back into the deep.
At least we had something to bring back.

Inshore the water was cloudy. Couldn't see bottom in 15 ft. So plan C. Before calling it an early day, Joe dropped off on an ulua house. Twenty ft from the table top I could just make it out. Inside the house it was dark. It took about ten seconds to adjust and I could see a small ulua getting ready to leave out the other side. I swam into the hole and got a nice head shot. Lucky me, it came out of the same hole I went in and it was a struggle to get it up. Joe came and picked me up and then it was off to the last hole on the way back in. It is one of our favorites and since Claude hadn't shot one in a while, he was going to take one side and I took the other. At the hole, Claude went down and I followed on the other end. There was a bunch of them in there. At least a dozen or so. Claude shot and I took a shot on one that was headed straight at me. Joe came over and put a kill shot one mine. Claude hit his ulua high and it tore off.
The winds started to pick up and it was threatening to rain so we headed on in. Short day, but a special day. Two Uluas 47 and 35 lbs and turning 39years old. Of course I stopped counting 14 years ago!
I"m still working on the world record for oldest diver. Got lots of years to go!:thumps:

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Well its that time of year. The blue water season is starting up. My buddy Matt got his first ono last Sat. and Sunday we saw a bunch, but the score was Onos 6, and divers 0. :eek:
The weather has been super nice lately. The winds have died and since today was the last day of the cold front, Pete and I decided we better get out while the winds are down. Its going to blow hard in the next few days.

Since Pete has to walk his new yellow lab pup first, we got off to a late 9:30 start. By the time we got out, it was late morning and the first stop was dead. Not much bait seen and we treaded water for two hours. On the way back, we had one more spot to check out. By now the current was very strong and since I was in first, I got up current and waited and waited and waited. Nothing. Lots of bait and no fish. :(

Next thing I know, I see my buddy Pete on the boat. I had told him we would give the spot 45 minutes and then leave. I figured it was time and since I was beat, I let meyself drift back to the boat. There, Pete had that "sly dog" smile as I climbed back in. Laying on the deck in front of me was a big Ono! It looked huge. We took a few pictures and then headed back in. We were tired and we got what we came for. Pete says to call him the " Ono King"! Of course when we got back he had to weigh it. I guessed 55 lbs but he said bigger. He should have let me estimate. It ended up at 50 lbs on our digital scale. Of course he said 5 lbs of blood was lost!:rolleyes:

So as of now he's the ono prince since my 65 lb ono is the one to beat from earlier in the year. Can't complain, our gang all has fresh fish to eat and the season is just starting!:thumps:

Aloha, Daryl

[weekendrx]

What a beautiful fish! I hope they're still around in February when I get down there. Happy Holidays!

Kurt

[Smudge]

Sometimes, work really sucks!!! Haha!! Congratulations Pete! Maybe I'll make out this weekend....

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

The gang here wishes you all a merry xmas.:thumps:

Here's our buddy Pete's Xmas present. Looks like the Ono king is still kicking. Bum knees and all.

Pete and I went out today. Saw a lot of onos. Pete shot and missed at one and I shot one that tore off. Then later I saw one come in and shot it. The water was super clean, glassy and more bait than we have ever seen. Looks like its going to be a good one ths year. Had to get back early so did a short dive at our other spot. By the time I got in the water and swam up to the pinnacle, I didn't see any bait. So I swam up current more and the bait was all stacked. I looked back and the boat and there was Pete waving me back. I figured he saw the huge tiger I saw the other day. So I swam back quickly and there on the boat was a big Ono that the Ono King shot! The only bad news is when I got the tip out and pulled the fish in, I knocked my fins into the water. :eek: I found one in about 100ft, but the other belongs to Nemo. :( But better one than none.
Petes ono was 47 lbs and my ono was the twin at 49lbs.

Have a great Xmas!:thumps:

Daryl

[kill shot]

Merry Christmas Daryl.

I'm sitting here on Sunset Beach with the family wishing I had some dive gear with me. Really not a bad place to be sitting so I am definitely not going to complain.

Eric

[Smudge]

Oh bummer about the fin!! Wish I could have gotten out of work today!!

[Christo]

Aloha Daryl

Merry Xmas from all of us down here:thumps:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

It was a great xmas. Xmas day Pete and I got out, but the weather was nasty so we came home early. No sense getting beat up with two more days of diving.

Day after Xmas, Joe, Matt and I got out. The weather was 180 degrees from the day before. No wind and calm. But our favorite spot had tons of bait but no fish. We ended up shooting some fish for a friends party coming up and then decided to stop at one last spot where Matt got his last ono.
We anchored up and got in. After an hour, I was beat so I swam up to the boat and sat on the swim step to rest. I was sitting and thinking what a great day it was with Matt just off to the side of the boat and Joe 50ft out. Next thing I know I see both guys to dive and that could only mean one thing! I scrambled to put my mask on and jumped in. A school of four onos went between Joe and Matt. Joe shot the closest one and the biggest one was just about in front of me with Matt off to the side lined up. He took a long shot and just missed. :( It just kept on going.
Joe got back to the boat with his ono and Matt and I kept looking. 20 minutes later a lone ono came by and I lined up an easy shot. Thought a stone shot would be good. Squeezed the trigger and missed! :eek:

Thats what I get for thinking about what I was going to do with all the ono fillets.:rolleyes: That was the last hurahh so we got in and headed home. It was late and there is always tomorrow. Same thing at the same places.

Joe's ono was a healthy 46 lbs. So now he's the ono master with three this season. :thumps:

Aloha,daryl

[sacha58]

Ciao Daryl, Merry past Christmas to you and happy Birthday....what a way to go

:thumps:

[weekendrx]

The time is drawing near! Only a few weeks til my visit to the North shore of Oahu to get married and do some diving! Anyone have any diving suggestions?

Kurt

[Blesum]

Probably won't want to dive the north shore as it will still be wintertime in a few weeks. We usually have big waves/rough conditions there. Stick with the south shore.

-Paul

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Kurt,

The north shore will/might have high surf. The south and west side would be a good bet. Might have to check with the new Mrs first! Give me a call when you get in.

We've been going way offshore to look for blue water species. Some days were great, other days a dud. But better to dive than be at work.

Will post pictures later.

Aloha,Daryl

[clavinr]

Kurt GO!!! You will have the rest of your life to make up for it...trust me I got in so much trouble but wifey forgot all about it because I was with Daryl. I told my wife I would be home around 5 and got in at midnight...oops. I tell that lie at home all the time and I don't get in trouble for it...anyways send her on a luau or something and start the marriage off right, with fireworks!

PS I will send you some wetsuit glue over for Pete, and don't even try to keep up with them. Take plenty of pictures and shoot plenty.

[weekendrx]

Thanks for the heads up guys! And I will start it off with fireworks. She's pretty used to the "hey i'll be home by 5" line and then i end up getting home around 10 or 11. Daryl, I'll give you a call as soon as I get in town. Oh and how long of a drive am i looking at from Turtle Bay to somewhere diveable?

Kurt

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Kurt,

Turtle bay has some great diving just off the point. You won't have to drive far. The only thing is that area is usually rough during the winter with the north swells coming in.
You will be an hour drive from Kaneohe where I do most of my diving. The onos are in and we can check out a few spots if the north swell isn't too bad.
Here's a few pictures of the onos this season. I'll post more pictures and stories later.

Aloha,Daryl

[weekendrx]

This is how I know I'm marrying a good woman. I (thanks to Bob's heads up) forewarned her that a dive in HI would be a long long day. She tells me no problem and told me she doesn't care how long I stay out because she knows its my dream to dive with Daryl. Luckiest man on earth right here

Kurt

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Kurt,

Yes you are a lucky guy. Make sure you tell your fiance that. Us married guys need to get as much brownie points as we can.:thumps:
Weather permiting we will try to see if the onos are still in. Heres a short story on the last two weeks.

Every year, I make sure I have xmas eve,day and day after off and same with new years. This gives me six full days to dive during the holidays to chase onos. The onos only come in this time of year and then are off. The latest they will be in is usually feb. So if the weather is ok we spent the whole time looking at our favorite spots. It took us a while, but we found the onos. This year is good and that most of the holidays its been great weather.:thumps:

Xmas weekend We went out for four days straight . At first we only saw singles and then twos and then later small groups of four to six at a time.
Xmas weekend, Pete, Joe, and I shot a nice batch of onos. Pete is the Ono king with his 50 lb ono. Joe is the master at shooting them and has 6 or more already this season.:thumps:

New Years weekend, the eve, day and sat and sun, we had our good freind Dr John Boyer out with us. He has been coming out many years only to see the onos, and then lately shoot one that came off when he forgot to let go of the tagline and it dragged him for a few seconds before tearing off. :eek: Friday
John shot his first and second onos ever!:thumps: Matt our other buddy shot his second ono ever and got to see what a fleet of onos look like as they cruised in. I watched him shoot his with his new super mag.
I was lucky to shoot a few onos and also shoot an Awa. The Awa or Milkfish are super wary and hard to shoot. I got lucky by diving way below as the school came by. They don't look down and I was able to come from below and shot one. They are just as strong as the onos!

.
Last Sat, we drifted and checked out all our spots and couldn't even find bait. Then on the last hour Joe shot an ono and then on the next drift over the same spot, I shot one. The last drift Joe and I both shot onos and then it was getting dark.

The nice thing about diving is that there are always options. When the onos aren't around, we shot reef fish for our friends party, and then checked out ulua houses where our buddy Matt or Smudge shot his second big ulua and to make it sweeter, it was his birthday! :beer::beer::beer:

The weathers back to its normal rough and nasty, but this weekend its supposed to drop. We'll get out as usual and hope to find the onos again
We'll give a report next week.

Aloha Daryl

[Ascendv6]

WOW!!!! Those pictures are incredible. I can't wait to get back out there. Hopefully the onos will be waiting for me.


Darren

[Smudge]

Aloha!

Daryl just sent me pictures of our latest adventure. This past Saturday, I got the word to meet the Gang at Daryl's house at O'dark Thirty to go take a look for onos.

Early in the week the weather was flat and glassy but by the weekend, the Kona winds had come into full effect! In a matter of an hour Saturday afternoon, it went from light and breezy to blowing like the dickens and down right nasty! The forecast still called for light winds in the morning, building throughout the day. With that forecast we decided to get a nice early jump on the day Sunday morning.

Once we got the boat in the water, we blasted out to the spot over flat calm seas looking for the skinnies! It was a great ride out! With conditions as nice as they were, we all had high hopes of big, fast fish!! Well, unfortunately, hopes don't always translate into fish in the box!!

When we jumped in the water we were greeted by hazy water and no fish! Not even the usual opelu kala, opelu and la'e. After a bit of waiting, we finally found some bait and watched a HUGE school of awa cruise by on just edge of visibility.

With no action of the right kind, we moved on to hot spot number two.. We hoped to find cleaner water, but no such luck there. More cloudy water, a serious lack of life and definitely no ono!

Since it was seriously looking like the ono were going to give us a miss, we decided to go shoot some fish for dinner! We made a move to a reef that we haven't shot fish on for about a year. We always try to rotate where we hunt to avoid over pressuring any one particular area. It really pays off!!

Daryl dropped Diver Joe and I off up current and then anchored up a few hundred yards down so he, John and Pete could cover the other end of the reef. Uhu was the word of the day! I had a truly epic dive for me. Two moana kali started off my stringer and a big blue bullet head finished the day for me! Just as I made my way back to the boat, I took a peek into a nice hole in the reef and was surprised by a couple of nice ulua!! 20-25 pounders at least! It was very dark and I managed to wiff!! Complete miss!! The nearer of the two turned just as I pulled the trigger! Oh well, that's what rushing your shot will get ya!

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/matt_s_best_catch.jpg

With out a doubt, this is my best reef stringer yet!!!

Back at the boat, Daryl and Joe showed up with similarly impressive stringers!

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/great_day_with_joe_and_matt_mokapu.jpg Daryl added a nice omilu to show me how it's done!!!

[weekendrx]

NICE! 1 Month from today I'll be on my way down! I can't wait!

Keep up the good work,

Kurt

[Blesum]

Photo of Daryl and Gang going by on his boat. Super-secret location. :D

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e210/Blesum/rubbish/P1010045.jpg

Surfing tomorrow, but will prob be diving Sat and Sun. Probably be working on photos for the magazine instead of actually hunting though.

-Paul

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,


Here's the latest report. Our good friend Pete is having knee surgery today. Its out patient. He has tears on two ligaments and its been hampering his diving. So he's having the knee scoped. He'll be out three weeks.

Yesterday I found a driver for my boat. My good friend Dean loves to fish and he said he would fish near us while we did our drift diving.
Our first stop was a winner. We must have gotten on the Ono freeway. We saw onos on every dive. Most were very skittish, but on the third drift, a small school came in and I landed a small one. Pete tried to get a shot on the trailers that hung around my fish, but they took off before he could make a drop.:(

After lunch, the current was going the other way, but it seemed to have more fish on this direction. Again a school came by and I found a dumb one and landed that one too. I tried to keep the school with my fish and Pete was able to get a nice shot on a big one. It was a solid shot. It buried his float and but while he was starting to bring it up, the tip tore out. :(

The last dift was epic. A big school came in deep and as they went below me, I followed them. Gradually they angled up and then were up on the surface. They made a big circle around us and I got close enough to spine shot another ono!:thumps:

Pete was beat and so was I. We drift dove from 9:00am to 4:00 pm.
The gang met at my place and we cut up the fish and had a BBQ. It doesn't get better than that. Everyone took home fish.:D
We all wish Pete a successrul surgery and hope he comes back bionic!:thumps:

Thanks to Dean for driving. Without him we couldn't go out. He even got in a few nice fish!

Aloha,Daryl

[dr.ed]

Daryl
Give Pete my best wishes for a speedy recovery!! Follow rehab Religiously; not too little and not too much! Soon he'll be Boinic Pete.

[pirate_diver]

Daryl and friends:

Those ono pics are awesome. The colors on some of those fish are so vibrant. Possibly heading bluewater this weekend (in Florida) to look for wahoo. Any tips on shot placement/fighting them? If I get a shot at one it'll be my first.

[Daryl Wong]

Aoha Mike,

Good luck on your blue water quest. If you look at many of the pictures, the shot vary. Take what you can get. Our motto is "if its in the boat, its a good shot". Seriously the best shot is on the back half of the fish. Onos have a long stomach cavity so that gives you only the top half of the fish that is solid while the back half above the Anal fin and back is solid meat. Also there is more sinewy fibrous meat back there to give the tip more to hold on.

One thing I do tell everyone, is that when you see the fish and your think you are close, get closer! Because most times you will be about 5-8ft farther away than you think your are. :eek: The clean clear water will do this to you. There is no background or referance to give you size and distance. You have to use the fish as an indicator. The bigger the fish, the closer it will look.
If you can see the fishes eyes move and the small finlets moving then you are getting close.:thumps:

I have a special guest from Spain and we went out the other day and shot onos. I'll post some pictures later.

Good luck and blast a big one for all of us!:thumps:

Aloha Daryl

[monster slayer]

That Ono is a monster!!

[Christo]

That Ono is a monster!!

X2.

What type of floatline setup do you use? Would a Riffe 50' bungee attached to an Aimrite bluewater float be sufficient to land an ono that size?:beer:

[Smudge]

Yes, that should work fine. We usually use 75-100ft solid float lines with inflatable floats or Rob Allen hard floats.... So a 50ft bungie with an inflatable will do you just fine..

[pirate_diver]

Aoha Mike,

Good luck on your blue water quest. If you look at many of the pictures, the shot vary. Take what you can get. Our motto is "if its in the boat, its a good shot". Seriously the best shot is on the back half of the fish. Onos have a long stomach cavity so that gives you only the top half of the fish that is solid while the back half above the Anal fin and back is solid meat. Also there is more sinewy fibrous meat back there to give the tip more to hold on.

One thing I do tell everyone, is that when you see the fish and your think you are close, get closer! Because most times you will be about 5-8ft farther away than you think your are. :eek: The clean clear water will do this to you. There is no background or referance to give you size and distance. You have to use the fish as an indicator. The bigger the fish, the closer it will look.
If you can see the fishes eyes move and the small finlets moving then you are getting close.:thumps:

I have a special guest from Spain and we went out the other day and shot onos. I'll post some pictures later.

Good luck and blast a big one for all of us!:thumps:

Aloha Daryl

Thanks for the info Daryl:thumps:! Hopefully everything will work in my favor. They are some BIG wahoo you got there for sure!

[Christo]

Yes, that should work fine. We usually use 75-100ft solid float lines with inflatable floats or Rob Allen hard floats.... So a 50ft bungie with an inflatable will do you just fine..

Thanks for the info. Also my partner does not have a bungee, just a 75' Riffe hard floatline and a lifeguard can. It's good to know he can get by without a bungee.:beer:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

The blue water season is still happening. Just not as good as it was a few weeks ago. Much of it depends on the moon phase. Full moon is best. This past week has been a whirlwind of activities for our gang. I've been hosting a special guest for the past week. His name is Joseba Kerejeta.

I first met Joseba a few years ago. It was during a visit in Florida for Sheri Daye's Blue wild dive expo. Joseba was in Florida to visit one of our friends and also guest speak at the dive expo. Joseba had also set the men's Black marlin record that year with my Ono gun . He gave a great talk on his diving around the world. We met up again this past year at Sheri's expo and he told me he was coming through Hawaii and wanted to do some diving. Of course I said come on over! Who wouldn't want to dive with a record holder and now the current men's world spearfishing champion from Spain!:thumps:

While in town Joseba was treated to a tour of Oahu where we live. Matt on his day off gave him the grand tour of the island. They saw the big surf, experienced the local "grinds" ( Food). And each day we all met to eat something different so he could see and taste the cultural diversity that Hawaii has to offer. The best part is a few nights we stayed in and ate what we harvested when diving. One night we fried and grilled Kumu and Kole, and the last night we ate fish tacos with the nice ono Diver Joe shot on Sunday.

The first day out, we did a half day of drifting for onos. The water was a little choppy and although three days earlier I had shot three onos in the same area, the onos just weren't there. :( Sunday the next day we met at 6:30 am and our group was joined by another friend of mine from the bay area Heiko Sacher. Heiko is an internationally recognized product designer who has multiple international design awards to his credit.
This was his first shot at blue water diving. We launched and hit all the regular spots. We even stopped by and introduced Joseba and Heiko to our pet turtle chomper. The only ono we saw on the first dives was a skittish one that came by Joe and then me. Joseba didn't see anything and decided to do a little reef diving.

I asked him if I could tag along and watch. He said sure and I could be a safety diver. Joseba is in a class of his own. I can see why and how he is now the current men's world champion. He put on a clinic.
Dropping to 110 ft is nothing. He glides down, does and aspetto for a minute, and then when the fish doesn't come in, moves underwater to another spot 50ft away and does the same technique. Then he comes up. Average bottom time was 2-2:45 minutes. His recovery time about 3-4 minutes. Diver Joe watched him in the shalllows in 60 ft and said Joseba would move sometimes to three different spots to find fish.
The highlight of the day was the gang drifting into a big school of onos. They came by Joe and he shot and landed a beauty. Heiko saw his first ono school and is now hooked on blue water. Later we did some more reef diving and of course Joseba put on a clinic but Joe,Matt and I also got in a few fish.

In the evenings we would get back and pick Joseba's brain. He is so analytical about gear, technique, stalking and where and what to do for different fish it that we soon realized he is a machine that is always reinventing himself to adapt to any type of condition, location and fish. While looking at a globe and showing us his favorite places to dive around the world, we realized, there are few places in the world he hasn't dove. The only continent he hasn't dove is Antartica!
And the beauty of it is you could see he loves any type of diving. Shallow, deep, rough,calm, clean dirty or cold. As long a he can swim and there is fish, he is happy.

Our gang had a blast with a very special person. Joseba was always informative and more than happy to give advice and helpful tips. Now that we have seen what hard work, dedication and attention to detail can do, we hope that we can improve our diving with the huge amount of knowledge we gained in such a short time.

The helpful tips on speargun design, properties and materials that I gained were
invaluable. We talked about speargun design, barbs, shafts just about everything to do with spearguns. Like that old EF Hutton comercial, when Joseba speaks, you listen!:thumps:

I want to wish Joseba the best of luck in the next worlds this year in Croatia, and hope our paths cross again soon.:thumps:

Aloha Daryl

[weekendrx]

Just reading this last post makes me so excited to come to oahu! Only 3 weeks til we head your way!

Kurt

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha gang,

Its been a while since we went out. The weather has been crappy, so the onos have been on hold. The uluas are in and we have gotten a few. Last week, Joe, Matt and I went out and shot a couple of nice ones. Only bad thing was Matt got a thoracic squeeze while shooting an ulua that I missed 80ft down under a ledge. He got it coming up and came to the surface spitting up blood. To ad insult to injury, his fish tore off while we were getting another spear to get a kill shot.
Later at the same spot I saw an African pompano and got a nice tail shot. Down deep its not like you have a lot of time to shoot. that Sunday we ended up with two nice uluas, and a bunch of smaller Papios.
My buddy from Connecticut came in Monday eve and he's here to fly fish for world class bonefish, shoot and ulua and shoot an ono. Not necessarily in that order. He is a fireman and professional fly casting guide who also works for Orvis fishing company. I met him when he helped me and my teamates scout for the Nationals.

Wed we went out on the south side and he got his first octopus, and tiger cower y. Thursday while scouting for fishing spots, he saw his first huge bonefish.
Friday he went out and hooked his first two Hawaiian bones. But they were huge and broke him off in the rocks.

Sat morning he went out with a buddy of mine and they got a nice bonefish or Oio as they are known by in Hawaii. Later when I finished work, Joe,Pete, Aron and I took the boat out for an afternoon ono run. The first dive we saw one, then the second dive another one. Each time they were very wary and no shots. The third dive nothing and the tide changed. We went to the opposite side of the drift and on that drift I shot a nice 30 lb ono. Other than that, it was one of only four onos seen all day. The water was also freezing. Its been around the 72-73 degrees range.

Tomorrows another day. We'll have a full day to shoot onos or Uluas. Super bowl?!?!? Haven't seen on or care about it for the last 26 years. Heres a few pictures from the other Sunday and todays adventure along with Arons firsts.

Aloha,Daryl

[Smudge]

Nice skinny for the day!! Wish I could have been there! I should be all healed up by next Sunday. Valentine's Day may be more important than the Superbowl though!!! I won't get out of work until 8am or so, hope the weather holds!!

[pirate_diver]

Nice bonefish your friend got there! How big was it? That's also a nice AP, it dwarfs the uluas. Great posts and pics Daryl, keep 'em coming!

[dr.ed]

......... The water was also freezing. Its been around the 72-73 degrees range.

Tomorrows another day. We'll have a full day to shoot onos or Uluas. Super bowl?!?!? Haven't seen on or care about it for the last 26 years.
Aloha,Daryl

"Freezing...72-73 degrees" :eek: Is that the HTS (Hawaiian Temp Scale)???? It's Not 73 in My house until you're 6 ft from the wood stove.

As soon as the ice melts on the quarry(yes i'm a wimp); i'm breaking out my 7mm and work on my bottom time:D


What is this "Super Bowl" thing????? some kine family sized container???

[Christo]

Nice fish,fry them in the supper bowl.:D

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Mike,

Aron didn't weigh the bone but he's caught a ton of them in the Keys and he said is was about 6-7 lbs. He was more impressed by the ones he saw tailing. He said some had to be at least 10 lbs. The problem he had was there was actually too many. It was hard to cast and not line other bones that were nearby. Said he wasn't complaining, but he'll get a big one before he leaves.
I took a crash course in casting yesterday Afternoon and it was fun. Might start it up since the spots are only 5 minutes from my house.
Aron guides for stripers up in Rhode island and said these bones were way more challenging.

We went out diving yesterday and had to rush in ealry because Aron and Pete both got hit by Box jelly fish in the face. Pete on the forehead and Aron on the lip and then when he pulled his snorkel out and put it back in, the rest of the jelly fish was on the mouth piece. We had to rush in they were in so much pain and Pete almost was in shock. I called ahead and had an ambulance waiting for Pete. He's 74 allergic to beestings and was shaking on the deck by the time we were half way in. They took him in the ambulance and checked him out for 30 minutes, but by then he could get up and wasn't shaking. It was pretty scary.
Google Box jelly fish and you'll see it can be fatal. They close the beaches here when they show up.
The main thing is they both recovered, and even that evening they were feeling like they had a bad sunburn to go with the huge welts on their faces.


Aloha,Daryl

[Sharktrainer]

Great photos.

[Bill McIntyre]

That's scary about Pete. Nancy got scared for him even after the fact. Tell him she's glad he dodged another bullet.

[monster slayer]

That was scary, sorry to hear that. I hope they are both well by now. I realize now how dangerous it can get in the ocean even from things you cannot see.

[pirate_diver]

Aloha Mike,

Aron didn't weigh the bone but he's caught a ton of them in the Keys and he said is was about 6-7 lbs. He was more impressed by the ones he saw tailing. He said some had to be at least 10 lbs. The problem he had was there was actually too many. It was hard to cast and not line other bones that were nearby. Said he wasn't complaining, but he'll get a big one before he leaves.
I took a crash course in casting yesterday Afternoon and it was fun. Might start it up since the spots are only 5 minutes from my house.
Aron guides for stripers up in Rhode island and said these bones were way more challenging.

We went out diving yesterday and had to rush in ealry because Aron and Pete both got hit by Box jelly fish in the face. Pete on the forehead and Aron on the lip and then when he pulled his snorkel out and put it back in, the rest of the jelly fish was on the mouth piece. We had to rush in they were in so much pain and Pete almost was in shock. I called ahead and had an ambulance waiting for Pete. He's 74 allergic to beestings and was shaking on the deck by the time we were half way in. They took him in the ambulance and checked him out for 30 minutes, but by then he could get up and wasn't shaking. It was pretty scary.
Google Box jelly fish and you'll see it can be fatal. They close the beaches here when they show up.
The main thing is they both recovered, and even that evening they were feeling like they had a bad sunburn to go with the huge welts on their faces.


Aloha,Daryl

WOW! That's a scary situation. After spending 6 months in Australia I am well aware of the box jelly dangers. Thankfully your friend didn't have a wore reaction. As for the bonefish, I've caught two in the keys, about 2-3lbers but on spinning tackle with shrimp. My good friend is a fly guide in Montana and winters in the keys and he's gotten 10+ lbers on fly. HUGE fish. Good luck to your friend in his quest. Also, once you start stalking bonefish, you'll be HOOKED. Good luck!!!

[dr.ed]

Scary; box jellys are nasty!!! Glade Pete's OK. Nice fish!

[Daryl Wong]

Ironicly they had a news special the next night that Box jelly fish would be swarming. They have figured it out that they come in from the deep to spawn each moon phase. Usually about 8-10 after the full moon. They later closed Hanauma bay and parts ofWaikiki due to box jelly fish.
Aron still has a fat lip where he got stung. He said when he wakes up his lip is all fat. Haven't asked Pete how he is yet, but my sister who is a Dermatologist who looked at the welt later that night at our place said it would blister and then peel like a bad burn.
So if you see a small juice cup sized jelly fish that is opague to clear and Four trailing tenacles, leave it alone.

Mike, Aron went out fishing for bones the next day and caught another bone the same size. Said he saw hundreds of them. I may have to take up fly fishing!

Aloha,Daryl

[weekendrx]

I hope they're gone next week! Hows' the swell been?

[clavinr]

I hope Pete is feeling better.

[pirate_diver]

Mike, Aron went out fishing for bones the next day and caught another bone the same size. Said he saw hundreds of them. I may have to take up fly fishing!

Aloha,Daryl

Stalking and fishing for bonefish, whether fly or light tackle spinning gear, is ADDICTIVE.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha SB,

I haven't posted for a while. The weather wasn't that great but our gang did go out. The box jelly fish victims have recovered and now its weather that has changed. Super bowl Sunday it was only the patriarch Pete and I. everyone else was tied up watching a late season football game. Pete and I got out and the pier was empty. We were the second boat out. We did a few dives and checked our usual ono spots. It looks like they have left. The season started early, but it also ended early. We shot a few fish and Pete shot some Uhus while I took a pole spear to shoot some Kole to fry up later that eve.

One thing good out of that day is I got to test out one of my new slip tips. The one I tested was a spectra tip that I designed to fit on 9/32 shafts. The diameter of the tip is 9/32in and has a 700 lb spectra cable. This tip is a pencil point with a tiny tri cut to help get maximum penetration. I checked two ulua houses before I could connect on one. It was 30 lbs and the tip worked flawlessly. This tip will be great for the WSB and smaller pellagics. As for Ulua, I would still recommend cable due to the coral we have here.

This past Sunday, we had the gang back out. Joe, Matt, Pete and I got out early and because the weather was calm went to check and see if any stray onos were still in. at the second spot, I saw an Ulua on the edge of our deep pinnacle. It went under some rocks at the base and was hanging out. Matt had lost one there three weeks ago and ended up with a thoracic squeeze from not being warmed up enough for an 88ft dive. I wasn't warmed up, so I called Joe and Matt to spot me. The boat was anchored nearby so I went and swapped my magnum for my GR ulua gun. I had changed out the spectra tip to try out the other new tip I have. That tip is a 5/16 pencil point tri cut tip that has 900lb SS cable and a 6mm threaded adapter.

I did a long breath up and then did my drop. When I got to the top of the ledge, it seemed like hours before the ulua came around and I got a shot into its head. While coming up, the ulua came out of the hole and started dragging me around. Matt did a short dive and helped grab the line and we got the spunky ulua up. This is what diving with buddies is all about. We can watch and help each other out. In the meantime, only feet away, Joe got down to 68 ft and dropped on a really nice uku. Joe comes up with the fish of the day! :thumps:His Uku was big. The funny thing is it had a deformed tail. So we kidded Diver Joe about shooting handicapped fish! We both took pictures and I got some nice shots of my slip tip to add to the other weeks ulua and sliptip.


Both our ono spots had very little bait so we left early. Looking to shoot fish for dinner, we did a quick dinner dive with our pole spears and gathered a gallon baggy of Kole. On the way home we did one last ono drift and then called it quits. That evening we met with the gang, did our BBQ, ate fish and had a blast as usual.

Aloha,Daryl

[Bill McIntyre]

Daryl,

I'm glad to see that 9/32" Spectra tip work so well. I'm anxious to try mine on a white sea bass, but so far the weather isn't cooperating. I had to decide which gun to put it on, and I ended up putting it on my 50" GR since I figured I'd be using it in the murky water, but I've only gotten out once.

[Scott Diego]

If I am not mistaken, is that a new handle design as well? Looks like it has a little more angle in it (it might just be the picture)

http://www.spearboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=122595&d=1266911221

[Smudge]

That's one of the "hack-saw" prototypes! Haha! I think the finished version will be similar, with a few tweaks. I'm really looking forward to the new handle! The increased angle on the prototypes gives a more natural feel with your arm extended for aiming...

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Yes, that was a frankenized handle to see what different angles felt like. A more angled handle gives you a natural pointing of your hand when aiming. So hopefully there will be something out this year. Designing a handle is easy. Getting it from paper to reality is time and money.

Wed I had one of the gang out to look for onos with his old dive buddy from San Diego. Dr John doesn't get away that often, but when he does he makes the most of it. His buddy Al was visiting from SD and hasn't does much blue water. John wanted to see if there were any onos left and a maybe get one for Al. We hadn't seen any in over two weeks now and it looks like the season is coming to an end.
John picked Al up at the airport and by 10:00 am we were launching at the ramp. The water was glass and no wind.

We ran around the corner to our regular spots and hoped to see our pet turtle. No luck. The water was calm but because of all the rain last week it was dirty. We still wanted to check for onos so we drove until we found a pretty blue area outside the murk line. Onos don't seem to like dirty water, so maybe we could find one on the edge. It was getting mid afternoon and while taking a water break on the boat with Pete the boatman, I saw John's float go zipping by. Fish on! :thumps: I scrambled to see which direction his float went but it got buried and for thrity seconds we wondered where it went. It popped up about 50 yds away and then bobbed up and down. John was on it and working the fish. Al swam over to watch and John got the fish up and the two of them swam back. For a guy that only comes once a month or so, John has shot some nice onos. Last time out he shot two!
Al had a plane to catch that evening so we headed back. Great day and ono fillets for the gang!

Aloha,Daryl

[DKSocal]

Great pics and story Daryl. Hoping to start diving more often over hear on the Big Island. Not a ton of shore access for us non-boat owners (read College Student) but its always nice to jump in.

[pirate_diver]

Aloha,

Yes, that was a frankenized handle to see what different angles felt like. A more angled handle gives you a natural pointing of your hand when aiming. So hopefully there will be something out this year. Designing a handle is easy. Getting it from paper to reality is time and money.

Wed I had one of the gang out to look for onos with his old dive buddy from San Diego. Dr John doesn't get away that often, but when he does he makes the most of it. His buddy Al was visiting from SD and hasn't does much blue water. John wanted to see if there were any onos left and a maybe get one for Al. We hadn't seen any in over two weeks now and it looks like the season is coming to an end.
John picked Al up at the airport and by 10:00 am we were launching at the ramp. The water was glass and no wind.

We ran around the corner to our regular spots and hoped to see our pet turtle. No luck. The water was calm but because of all the rain last week it was dirty. We still wanted to check for onos so we drove until we found a pretty blue area outside the murk line. Onos don't seem to like dirty water, so maybe we could find one on the edge. It was getting mid afternoon and while taking a water break on the boat with Pete the boatman, I saw John's float go zipping by. Fish on! :thumps: I scrambled to see which direction his float went but it got buried and for thrity seconds we wondered where it went. It popped up about 50 yds away and then bobbed up and down. John was on it and working the fish. Al swam over to watch and John got the fish up and the two of them swam back. For a guy that only comes once a month or so, John has shot some nice onos. Last time out he shot two!
Al had a plane to catch that evening so we headed back. Great day and ono fillets for the gang!

Aloha,Daryl

Nice ono Daryl. Must be nice to be your friend...day trip to Hawaii, do some spearing, shoot an ono, get the evening flight back. I do it all the time;)

[Smudge]

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/p3281261.jpg
Well, after a month of terrible weather then 2 weeks back in San Diego for school, I finally got a chance to get back in the water this last Sunday with Daryl and the gang. It's my final week before deploying once again, so this was probably my last chance to dive for at least three or four months. Since I'm deploying, Sarah came out to visit for her spring break. Hoping to get out to see some whales and our pet turtle she decided to hop on the boat with us. Well, if you've read any of the recent reports in the Hawaii section you know our weather has continued to be a bit blustery and lumpy.

Although Sarah spent four years in the Navy and completed a WESTPAC on her ship, there is a bit of a difference between a destroyer and a 28 Force! With a 3-4 foot wind chop riding a 6-8 foot short period swell and gusts over 20 kts it didn't take long for Sarah to turn a little green. Where we usually see whales and our turtle was considerably more exposed than we wanted but we made a couple of quick dives in search of GT's... With the approaching full moon and resulting heavy tides we were expecting to see some trevally in their usual holes. No such luck at the first spot, so we headed back around the corner and to Sarah's surprise and overwhelming relief, we told her we would drop her back off at the He'eia pier!!
http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/p3281239.jpg

I think Joe was the first to come up with a fish bagging a nice white on one of Daryl's deeper spots. There were more fish there, but mostly omilu and they bugged out pretty fast. We moved on to hot spot number two where Daryl came up with a chunky ulua and Joe had one tear off. Always a heart break when you lose any fish.
http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/p3281243_898820.jpg

Hot spot number three had Joe come up with a beast!! Solid 50lber!!
http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/p3281253.jpg

Now the pressure was really on me!! Haha!! We stopped on several more holes seeing fish on only one of them, but they were sketchy and bugged out through the smallest exit of the house!!

At this point we changed gears and loaded up on yellow eye kole for the BBQ Sunday evening. I had a great time with the three prong!! I had several doubles. Shooting one fish, cocking the pole spear, pulling the speared fish off, then popping another on the same dive!! I see Daryl and Joe do this all the time, but have only pulled it off myself a few times. Sunday, I managed at least three or four doubles!! Makes for much more efficient hunting to come up with two fish per dive!!

With only a little time left and me the only one on the boat without an ulua, Daryl decided to make one last swing by the deep spot to see if it had loaded back up with fish. Boy did it ever!! As usual, Daryl was the first one there, and he frantically waived me over as the hole was absolutely chock full of fish!!! As he swam up, half a dozen bugged out. As I got over, desperately trying to breath up for a deep dive, half a dozen more high tailed it out! I started to follow until I noticed that there were yet another 1/2 dozen fish still milling around the hole!!!

I dove from where I was, angling down on the school of fish, taking a bead on the biggest of them. I tracked the fish under a ledge as I glided down, and luckily predicted correctly where it would come out the other side! As soon as it cleared, BAM! A solid shot down through the shoulder. I loosened the drag on my reel and blasted for the surface. The fish tangled up deep, and Daryl dove down to put a second holding shot in to ensure we didn't lose it.

Joe made the first dive to start untangling. I was still totally spent so Daryl made another dive and cleared all the line except one tangle. By then I had recovered enough to make a dive to cut the shooting line on one of the guns if needed to get the fish to the surface. I went down with my knife in my hand but realized that the cable was wrapped only one last time around a hunk of lava rock. A couple of swift yanks and the fish and I were on our way up!

At the end of the day, Joe's big fish came in around 50lbs, Daryl's was in the 40's and mine came in about 20ish. But thanks to Joe's camera skills, even mine came out looking like a monster!!! Hahaha!!

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/files/5/4/9/4/p3281261.jpg

[pirate_diver]

Excellent story. This thread NEVER disappoints.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha ,

Its been a while since the last post. The weather has been unusually rough, and windy. Since the last post our gang has gone out less than a handful of times. When we did get out, we have been greeted with wind and, ground swells and dirty water. When the conditions are less than ideal we try to spear a few fish to take home to eat and to give to friends and then check out the ulua houses, since they aren't affected as much by the bad weather. I do notice that with a strong ground swell, the Uluas are less likely to be in the houses. Mainly because of the surge in the holes.
My favorite conditions to look for Uluas is overcast days with a no swell, and a very slight haze in the water. This helps silhouetting you on the surface as you approach the ulua house. The ulua houses can be anywhere from 10 ft or 100ft. As long as there is space to fit, there can be one to a hundred in a house. Normally you find big uluas by themselves and schooling uluas between 5-50lbs.
Last Sunday the weather was crappy, but is was so long since our last dive, we decided that something was dying out there. We also wanted to get some fish for a good friend who is sick and on Chemo. He's hanging in there and loves fish. So we wanted to get some to take over.
our usual gang of Pete and Joe met at the house and we launched our usual Kaneohe bay. Its pretty much my back yard and a refrigerator to me. The wind was howling, but the waves were only wing chop. There was a slight haze that I liked and the bottom was clear. Small rain squalls would come by and it was a little chilly with the overcast sky. Funny though, I ended up sunburnt.
We did a few dives and shot some Uhus and Kumus. We hadn't checked out any ulua houses in a few weeks so we looked into a few and they were all empty. Since there was no swell, we decided to check out a spot that normally has waves breaking. Its only about 15 ft deep, but deep crevasses and overhanging ledges. Sometimes the uluas are in the cracks there. I have one spot that sometimes has hundreds of them swirling under an archway.
Anchoring up, I thought I better bring the Ulua gun set up first and look for the ulua house. If nothing I can swim back and swap out guns. Pete was resting on the boat and Joe was rigging up. I went in first to check out the anchor and make sure it was set. Lucky me... just off to the side about 50 ft away I got close to the ulua house and could see they were already streaming out like a wagon train. I dropped down and as they came by I picked a nice one that looked pretty fat. Its stomach was bulging. The shaft hit it in the pectoral fin. Not my favorite place but on a moving target, good enough. I was hoping the new slip tip would do its job. The ulua went beserk . The cable was wrapped on a small coral head and the ulua was frantically swimming in place. Joe was on his way to back me up, and as I just got to the fish, it threw up a big Rudderfish or Nenue. Then it threw up another fish. This time a big Parrot fish. I got the ulua and brained it and asked Joe to grab the two fish that were rolling around on the bottom.
Back at the boat we took a bunch of pictures and marveled at how fresh the two fish were. They had no scales, and had teeth and puncture marks all over them but the gills were still red and the eyes just starting to cloud. This fish ate well that morning.:thumps:
Back at the house the ulua weighed 51 lbs. The last dive was with our pole spears and we shot enough Kole or small surgeon fish to make a nice fish fry for our friend Edgar. The main thing is we got out did our dive, came back safe and got enough fish for our good friend. Lucky we live Hawaii.

Aloha,Daryl

[Smudge]

Nice fish Daryl! Please tell Edgar that he's in our thoughts and prayers...


Looks like I won't be going to school in Virginia so I should be home sometime in July... See you guys then! Tell the gang I said hello!!!

[pirate_diver]

Sorry to hear about your friend Daryl, hope he's doing well and glad you could get out and shoot some fish for him. Nice Ulua. Any pics of the fish that got regurgitated?

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Our friend is hanging in there. He still loves to eat fish so thats a good sign.
I should have taken a picture of the fish that was regurgitaded but we ended up throwing them over. It was interesting in that they had no scales or most of them were gone and the fish were all scratched up with small lacerations and many puncture holes. But basically they were all whole. This is pretty much what we find in all the stomachs. Whole fish or Octopus. I'll dig up a bunch of pictures showing the octopus coming out of thier mouths.
I'll give Edgar everyones regards.

Aloha,Daryl

[jkvshooter]

I always enjoy reading your posts Daryl (sure makes me miss Hawaii). Those new slip-tips are pretty wicked and have been doing a great job anchoring Sea Bass over hear on the mainland.

Aloha,
jkvshooter

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

I've been slammed at work and the weathers been terrible so haven't gotten out much lately. I did go out a few times but came in early.
Heres a few pictures of some of the new friends and old friends like Smudge who just came back from deployment. He quickly got back into the swing of things with a huge ulua that he and I both tag teamed.
Later I took Boy Saldana and Hank who are visiting from the Phillipines and Belize. I showed Hank how to hunt uluas and our skittish fish and he passed with flying colors. He shot a nice ulua,but the slipt tip tore back out. I shot an Ulua later as we were going back to the boat. So he got to see one up close.
We all had a great time, shot some nice fish and ate too much at the BBQ after as usual!
The new kid on the block is Trent who is 13 but an up and coming diver.

Aloha, Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

After Sundays dive, Hank and Boy wanted to dive and see if Hank learned anything about hunting uluas and fish. Boy is he a fast learner. The first dive I just pointed fish out and he would drop down and shoot them. He made it look easy.
Later we went to a few ulua holes and he shot and lost one about 40 lbs. The slip tip tore out. Now he knows the agony of losing a big one.
He saw 5 more uluas, but the timing wasn't there so he'll have to come back again. I stoned a 45 lb ulua with my barbed shaft. Sometimes you get lucky.
Later the whole gang came over for Fried Kole, Diver Joe's awesom sweet sour Nohu and some great fried chicken!
This has been an awesome year. Friends from near and far have come on by to dive our waters and enjoy the hunt of our spooky fish.

Aloha,Daryl

[weekendrx]

SWEET! I can't wait to get back to the islands!

Kurt

[thecrab87]

Dang, Daryl, you guys are putting the hurt on the uluas!

Might have to go check some holes this weekend......

[pirate_diver]

Awesome pics Daryl! When is the best time to dive over there to get fish? I have 3 friends who live over there and a cousin at the USCG station. Want to make it out there at some point in the near future while they are there. Want to come over when I might have a chance to get shoot some fish!

[Hank49]

This has been an awesome year. Friends from near and far have come on by to dive our waters and enjoy the hunt of our spooky fish.

Aloha,Daryl

An awesome year for sure. Thanks for everything and I'll be back soon.

One more thing....wrap around twice....one knot.....wrap around twice...uhhh,....TWO knots....hahah. Many thanks amigo.

[monster slayer]

Dang, Daryl, you guys are putting the hurt on the uluas!

Might have to go check some holes this weekend......



Hey Willie!! Long time no see uh? Wellcome again brother :beer:

[speargunhunter]

Sounds like you all had a blast! Hank i know enjoyed his visit. Waiting for more pics in email Hank! lol

[SUN]

Me likey this thread

[thecrab87]

Hey Willie!! Long time no see uh? Wellcome again brother :beer:

Doing good, doing good!

Finally got my shit together and got back on the board, lol.

[Smudge]

Awesome pics Daryl! When is the best time to dive over there to get fish? I have 3 friends who live over there and a cousin at the USCG station. Want to make it out there at some point in the near future while they are there. Want to come over when I might have a chance to get shoot some fish!

There's always something to shoot! Just gotta watch the weather windows...

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Haven't posted in a while. I've had guests one after the other and having a blast.
The last few guests were Larry Griffith, Rick Claassen, an Mako Fufuwa all from California.
We noticed that at the pier we launch from
that the film industry guys were building a set. Then the next Sunday we came back and there was a
full blown set with fish stalls, dive shops, fruits stands and suddenly we were on a pier
in Palau!

It looked amazing. They transformed the road into a Polynesian harbor. It was set up to look
like Palau. While filling fuel at the dock, the harbor master Ernie
Choy who I've known for over 30 years. Told me that I was going to be in
the movie that the set was built for. Or at least my two pictures. It
seems there was a dive shop kiosk as part of the movie set that had a
bulletin board where customers send in pictures. Just like you see at
fishing or dive stores. We couldn't nosy around so we went diving. The
water was not too calm and the vis was milky. Nothing like it was the
previous Sunday or even Wed.
We ended up coming in early since I had a birthday eve dinner/BBQ with
all the gang and then some.
While waiting for young Trent Kilmer's mom to pick him up, we got to
talking with a lady that stopped by the boat. She was the movie set
purchaser for all the props and materials on the set. She offered to
give Pete, Joe, Matt, Trent a mini tour of the set. It told her I had
heard my picture was somewhere on one of the props and she said she knew
where. We got to go behind the taped off areas and she took Pete, Joe
and I to one of the dive shop props. She lifted the protective plastic
sheeting and not only was there one picture, but two. One was a big
ulua I shot years ago and the other one was with two of my buddies Sheri
Daye and Brandi Easter. That was the first time I met Sheri seven years
ago.
Pete had his camera and took a few pictures. Later he asked If I had
enough money to buy the pictures! Typical Pete.
The movie will star Dwayne Johson aka the Rock and Michael Caine. It's
a kids movie version of "Journey to the center of the earth".
The diving wasn't very good. I shot a small ulua about 12 lbs and a
nice Parrot about 6 lbs. The rest of the gang, shot a few fish but
nothing special. The winds have come back up and the water was murky
due to the rain and swells.
Its off to the Florida Show this weekend and then back to the grind
stone. That night was a blast and it was good to see all my friends.
With friends like mine, you never feel too old!
Don't ask how old I am. I'm older than dirt. My face book says 102
years old . But I feel like 54! haha

Now I'm off to Florida for the FTL boat show. See some of you up there!

Aloha,Daryl

[SpearMax]

Now that's a motley crew! LOL

See you at the next Blue Wild Daryl. Tony

http://www.spearboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=138756&d=1288165055

[thecrab87]

I got distracted by the pink bikini holding the mahi.......

[speargunhunter]

Daryl, thats very cool. Ill be sure to buy that movie! couldnt happen to a nicer guy. dive safe my friend! :toast:

[petej]

Man this is an awesome thread. Thanks so much for posting the great stories and pictures. I haven't been able to dive in a while and I just read this whole thread through, totally made my day. Can't wait to read about your next adventure.
Pete

[HALF-BREED]

Seems like goods times. Aloha Daryl I had the pleasure to meet you at the BW expo. I hope to travel to your Island towards the New Year perhaps we can set up a dive. I will keep in touch.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Every year about this time my buddies and I look forward to the blue water season to start. Last year and this year its been strange. Some spots around the island have been holding onos all year round, but mostly singles. We wait for the schools to show up and dive for fish and uluas the rest of the year. This year it looks like an early start. While in Ft Lauderdale for the Blue wild dive expo at the boat show, I got three text photos from friends who shot onos and wanted to rub it in while I was away.
So yesterday, my buddy Matt and I went out. Our primary goal was to shoot enough fish to supplement a luau for a friend that just passed away. The funeral is on the 20th and we volunteered to shoot fish to steam and fry for an est 200-300 people after the funeral. That's a bunch of fish. The pressure was on since the past weekends is been so rough we didn't go out. Also we wanted to check out one of our spots to see if the onos were in.
Matt and I got an early start and was in the water at 7:30am. The wind was 15-20 knots and seas 2-6ft. There was no north swell so that was nice. The problem was all the rain we have been having. The water was murky and you could barely see the bottom at 80ft. There were lots of ballyhoo, stickfish, and opelu all over the place so the bait is there. Matt didn't see anything other than bait, but I saw ahuge rainbow about 15-20 lbs and kept trying to draw it in with my flasher. It would come in and then see me and swim away. Finally on the third try, I saw something to my left and in the murk it was an ono coming in to check out the flasher. It made a circle around it and then saw me. As it quartered away, I took my best shot. It was a solid body shot. The kind I like. After three long runs, it was tired out and I brought it back to the boat. We stayed out another half hour and Matt was getting cold so we decided to head back and shoot fish.
We ended up shooting 62 Kole which I can best describes as" Hawaiian Crappies" They taste awesome deep fried. I also shot a nice 13lb omilu and Matt shot a PB Kumu. Between the two of us we landed 6 Uhus, some Table bosses, and some micelaneous fish to steam and fry. Still have to get a few more baggies of Kole and some Uhus to steam. We'll try again Sunday.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can also check out our ono spots. Its great to dive with friends and for friends.

Aloha, Daryl

[weekendrx]

Man I need to get back to the islands!

[Hank49]

You have to see Daryl go down and shoot 3-4 Kole....per dive...with a Hawaiian sling. I just humbly floated on the surface and took it all in.....whoooaaaaa..

[Bill McIntyre]

The water was murky and you could barely see the bottom at 80ft.

I can't tell me how bad that makes me feel for you Daryl.

[Daryl Wong]

Alohas,

Well the season is here. Went out today after work with Diver Joe on his boat. First dive I got in. Joe didn't even have his suit on, and I see two onos cruising in. Lined up on the closest one with my 60 super mag and it was fish on! It made a huge circle around me and the floater stayed right next to me. The other ono just stayed about ten ft away. At one time its was as close as 5 ft away and I was tempted to have Joe throw in my reef gun, but he was scrambling to put on his gear and get his gun loaded.
Joe finally got in but the ono had lost interest and was slowly fading away. I brought my fish up and we loaded it into the boat.
We madetwo more drifts and it was now getting late. While looking at a small fish that decided the boat was its new home, I saw Joe crop down. Below at about 45 ft were two onos. By the time Joe got down they were already moving off. We didn't see anything after that and it started to get cold and overcast so me came in.
Tomorrow its another day and we'll try out a few new spots to see if the onos are there too.

Aloha,Daryl

[fishnstix]

very nice daryl ..... i'm officially addicted to ono hunting.

[Daryl Wong]

Well you need to shoot few down here. I went out yesterday for a half day and saw five. Only one came in close enough,but that was all I needed. I had a few other friends who went out yesterday and also shot onos at different spots. So it looks like the season is full on. This weekend should be a killer with the full moon.

Aloha,Daryl

[SpearMax]

Nice fish Daryl!

http://spearboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=139887&d=1290148502

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,


This is the season that we concentrate on blue water. Only thing is the weather isn't the best this time of year and its been a tough year on the boat that's and starting to show its age in the engine box. I've gone through a bunch of boats in my lifetime and when some one asks how old my boat is, I ask back in human year or boat years. To me each boat year is equal to ten human years. So by my calculations its now 80 years old. This over the last few years, I had to change the water pump, the raw water pump, starter, trans, and recently the hydraulic steering cylinder. I chalk it up to normal wear and tear, but is still sucks to have to have the boat down while changing out parts.
Because of the weather, this weekend was the first in a long time to have the perfect conditions for onos. They love calm clean and full moon.
Sat after work I took the boat out to test run after changing the Hydraulic steering. Joe drove the boat off the trailer and then nearly crashed into the pier with the steering not having enough Hydraulic fluid. We didn't factor that much air in the line. We ended up launching and then throwing the anchor so we could fill up the steering columns with hydraulic fluid. Once filled it was back to normal.
We set out for the area that my friend had be shooting the onos. In the last month he's shot over 20 to my three. Mycrew on Sad was Diver Joe,Pete, Dr Ed from West Virginia, and my old dive partner Claude.
The water was choppy but doable and as we drift dove, I set out a flasher system to act as a teaser. The water was getting darker with the rain runoff from the night before and the sun going down. On about the second dive I thought I saw a shaper below in the low light vis. As it angled up to the surface, I saw that it was nice ono. I closed the gap and got a nice quartering away shot. I saw the shaft hit, but didn't see where it hit. All I knew was that is took off like a rocket. my gun slid up the floatline and then the float came whizzing bye. The floatline caught the flashers and the last thing I saw wad Joe holding on the line and getting towed. He then let go when he could feel that it was a niced sized ono. If it wasn't for the flashers on my floatline, I would know where to follow. I could see the flashers going but no fish. I caught up to the float and then started the battle bringing it up. 5 minutes later, I had the ono up and it seemed like a big one. Joe took the flashers and then swam off as I got onto the boat. I had a hard time lifting the fish in and could tell it was a brute.
In the meantime while I was taking a few shots with the fish, Joe ran into a school and shot a nice 33 lb ono. Then darkenss came in.

Sunday we had the gang. Dr Ed who visits each year this time, Nate a friends younger brother who is stationed here.Pete, Joe, and my friend Dr John Boyer. I drove the boat for the first 4 hours since I already had a fish. On the first drift Pete shot a nice ono. The next dive Pete got on the board with a 37 lb ono. Later he would loose at least 60 lb ds.

Here are few pictures from a fun weekend.

Aloha,daryl

[speargunhunter]

Nice fish Daryl. As soon as things settle here LJ and I want to get out to see you and do some fishing. Happy Holidays and dive safe!:gun:

[Hank49]

Damn.....DAMN!! haha.
And not even full moon until next week Tues? You're good.
I'm still searching for a Belizean "ono highway". We're going out before dawn to get to a spot at sunrise. Lot of baitfish there last Saturday but no bigger fish.
Damn....you're good. Pete looks stoked.

[Captn Ron]

Nice fish Daryl! Looks like an epic weekend.

I can't believe Pete at 75. What's his secret?

[Smudge]

Always when I'm working!! LOL

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Ron,

The secret to Pete diving is he never stops. He went out Monday, Tues, with me and a few friends Wed and yesterday. Of course he's going out today too. It's all that salt water immersion preserving him!
Wed I took out an old friend from Raleigh NC. Bob used to come with our gang to shoot tunas out at the Revilligigedos. He's about the biggest diver I know at 6" 8'in. Making me look like a midget next to him is an understatement. But he has a heart as big as his size. This was the first time I was able to see him down here, so of course we had to show him some of the blue water Hawaii has to offer.
We met up about 9:00am and headed to the ramp. Bob brought his buddy Charles and son and Bob's son Duke. We got to the area and after everyone was suited up, Pete led the way to show them how its done.

Pete and Bob jumped in and instantly saw a school of at least 40and flat out missed he was so excited. I was on the boat driving. When they came around the second time, they came by my visiting friend Bob Finley shot first and he did the same thing. He isn't used to our clear water. The whole school took off before I could get a shot.
Later, I jumped in and I saw one come in for the flasher. It shot it and then realized that right next to me about 15 ft away there was one way over 60 lbs and it started to follow my fish. It was one of the few times I wished I had waited. I didn't see the big one come in. It was so big, the tail looked deformed because the body was so big around. But something is better than nothing and I'm ain't complaining. At least we have 34lbs of ono for the gang! It doesn't get better than this. seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Aloha, Daryl

[Ryfish]

Very Nice Daryl!

[pirate_diver]

Daryl the last two posts were AWESOME! That 60lb ono was one HELLUVA fish!!! Glad to see you are making it out and getting fish because I love reading the posts. I'm curious what the weather is like in mid March? My cousin in stationed out at the USCG base on Ohau and I am trying to figure out a way to visit then.

[dr.ed]

Daryl MUCH MAHALO to you, Pete, and Joe for your Aloha!!! Another great visit to Oah'u!

Got home after two flight cancelations & 13 hours late to 8 inches of SNOW! Only 49.5 weeks until next visit!

[Daryl Wong]

Well, its another Xmas come and gone. Winter is one of my favorite times here. We don't get snow or the change of seasons like most of the states, but we do have change of fish here. Fall,and winter is our blue water season, and its almost a tradition to get out and shoot onos. I usually have three days off and try to make the best of it.
Some how this year, all the guys had something to do. So instead it was just Joe and I yesterday. We did some drift dives after Joe finished working. We dove hard for three hours and didn't see anything.

Today Xmas day it was just Matt and I. Matt got off the ship at 8:00am and by 9:00am we were launching at a totally empty ramp in Kaneohe. The water was glass, but there was a huge swell. We motored to our favorite spots and the vis was zero. Back to the harbor and over the hill back home.

I called a buddy to drive the boat for us and it was back in the water at 1:30 pm. After three drifts, we finally saw an ono. It was moving away and not stopping. Then I saw two more. Again no luck. The water was milky so it was hard to see laterally. The onos were just under the surface making them hard to see.
Matt was jigging the flashers and when he turned, there was one just off the side. He lined up a shot and missed. I think it was the murky water. The ono did a slow turn and came around towards me. I had a teaser out and when it came back in, I got a long shot on it. Hit the belly and didn't waste any meat. It took off and after two long runs, I had it coming up from the bottom. All the while I had a school of about 20 onos milling around. Two sharks were circling the ono and I thought it was history, but for some reason they just circled. Dean came by and I unloaded the ono and picked Matt up. We went up current and dropped back in. Coming down we saw a few more onos, but it was already getting dark so we called it a day. Tomorrow its a new day and hope to shoot a few more.

Xmas Day, good times, good food, and good friends. What a life.

Aloha,Daryl

[weekendrx]

That looks like far more fun than the snow we're having here in CT! Forecast is for 30+ mph winds and up to a foot of snow. Good hunting.

Kurt

[Daryl Wong]

Well, the weather finally settled down a bit. To start the New Years out right, the gang decided to meet a little later in case anyone partied to hard. We all met at 8:30am.

Matt was a late night casulty. He had a friend come in on the eve and stayed out to late and drank a bit. Who could blame him!
Larry and Rick who was over a few months ago, returned for another job here in Hawaii. Lucky them! Right in the middle of the blue water season. Dr. Phil got in on the eve and was landlocked in Sunny New York over Xmas so he was raring to go. Diver Joe is always there ready to go.

The first dive we anchored up and spent an hour swimming in current. Lots of bait all over, but no onos. We picked up and headed to our usual spot and started drift diving.

Right off the bat Joe connected to a nice 37 lb ono. The guys got schooled by a bunch of onos. The others took shots but not used to clear water, only saw how far the shafts could shoot.

Next dive Joe was out and after ten minutes another big school came by. I shot the closest one. While I was bringin mine up, I held it in place and Larry, and Rick both took more shots at the onos milling around. Strike two.

Third dive, I was out and Dr. Phil connected. It dragged him around and after warding of three sharks, he boated the fish of the day. I whopping 54 lb ono. He's now the Ono King for this year.

Next dive, Phil's out and driving the boat and I connected with another Ono. Again the school hung around and again it was strike three for the California boys.

Now I'm out and driving and back up current, The onos are coming in and teasing the guys. Larry shoots and misses and Rick misses. Making up for lost time in the water, Dr. Phil connects again! Rick second shoots the ono and he finally hits an ono! Too bad it was on a shaft.

By now its late afternoon and when I was back in, I saw a nice ulua on some deep structure. I thought I could stone it was nope.... it went beserk and tied up 80ft down. We called the boat and anchored. While we took turns spotting, Dr Phil put a kill shot in and then I dropped down and cut my shooting line. the guys pulled up the 46 lb ulua and we called it a day. The current was ripping and between all the diving and spotting, we were tired. Tomorrows another day and another guest. Heiko from the bay area.
Joe grilled some ono steaks and bellies and we called it a day.

Great way to start the New Years! 5 Onos and a nice Ulua!

Aloha,Daryl

[SpearMax]

Happy New Year Daryl!

http://www.spearboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=142381&d=1293957402

[Smudge]

Arrrrggghh!! Haha, I knew I shouldn't have drank that many beers!! "Shoulda been there yesterday!" Today was a good time even though the wind came up and the onos went away!! I wonder where the heck they go!! The difference a day makes!!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

This week our elder statesman Pete Wolfgram has two of his dive buddies in town. Bob Bachman and Roy Beck. We call Roy the champ since he's been diving longer than most of of have been alive. He dove competitively decades ago. He's spry young man at 78 years old. Still dives for abs and is a superb home machinist. Even Pete who was a United Air machinist for over 30 years is in awe of Roy's ingenuity and creativity on the mill and lathe.

Bob a retired Engineer who also still teaches part time and Roy have been diving with Pete over 40 years. They used to dive baja before any of the roads were paved. They said Cabo San Lucas was only a few huts back then.
Needless to say, they have many adventures together and stories and wild tales to match. When the three get back together, its a blast to hear stories of old times and to hear each others version of really "what" happened!
One of the main ongoing stories is how Pete and Bob met. Supposedly Pete met Bob wondering down the beach one day when Bob stopped to check out Peter's catch. Bob asked if one of the fish was a ling cod. They have been friends ever since. Bob's story is he met Pete on the beach and showed him "his catch". From then on he's taken Pete under wing to show him the ropes. There's a story about these two and how they met in an early publication of HSD.

Well the three Amigos are back together again! I met Bob and Pete over 14 years ago when we all went to the Revelligigedos isles to dive for YFT. Bob was the Tuna king with a 255 lb tuna until I shot a bigger one off Costa Rica. Bob has been all over the world diving and still goes down to baja two to three times a year. He's the younger of the three at 70.
Each year Roy and Bob come down to visit and the bunch of us go out to shoot reef fish and hopefully some nice onos if they are around. With only a night before to get ready, we all met at my place at a leisurely 9:00 am. The grounds are only ten minutes out so we don't have to rush.
The first two drifts, the Apple dumpling gang as I call them didn't see anything but bait and clear blue water. Pete said to jump in and do the next dive so I jumped in and did a drift with Bob and Roy.
Earlier in the dive I saw a few YFT on the small side going down current below. They were 80 ft down and moving too fast to drop down in time. This time I saw one about 40ft down and it was going the opposite direction from behind me. I dropped down and as it passed, another one went by. Still to far to shoot I keep sinking. Another one came by and then two more. By then I was deeper and a tail end Charlie came cruising by and it was only about 15-20ft below barely in range. I aimed in front the fish and took a shot from above. The shaft arced down and Whack... right in the tail!!! Fish on! my float when zooming by and the fish was scraping the bottom 95ft below. Slowly the float came back up and it was a tug of war. Three times I had it almost up and then zoom, had to let go and float and all back down. Each time the fish stopped like it was spent and then let me bring it all the way up only to do it again. Finally I got it half way and then tied up the floatline on the bouy. Then it could only take 50ft. I finally got the shooting line and clipped it off. I slipped my hand up the gills and that sucker was mine!!!

Roy said he was by me when I dropped down and saw the whole battle. He now knows why I told him to let the fish run if he ever shoots an ono or tuna. Bob said the school of eight fish passed him at only 15ft below but he saw them off to the side heading away from him. The rest of the day we did drifts at different depths but the onos weren't around. But at least we have some fresh sashimi. Tonight the gangs coming over for fresh bacon wrapped ahi and sashimi! We'll also grill the collars and bellies.

We have another weekend for the three amigos to get out and shoot some fish. I hope to dive as long and have dive partners as good as they have had for these many years!

Matt you'll have to come back and shoot some fish!
Aloha,Daryl

[rigdvr]

nice Daryl! I was looking for Joe in those ono pics but only saw some stray sargasso weed with a smile????????

[worldspearo]

WOW!
Nice Job those are some nice Onos.
You are setting one heck of a standard for the new year!
Hope we can keep up.:notworthy

[carlsbadspearo]

Daryl,

Its nice to see Bob diving, I am one of the crew of the Horizon one of which I am sure he has told you the story of Baja past. Great times with great people. I look forward to reading your next adventure.

[pirate_diver]

Awesome account of the YF! What a nice fish!

[Smudge]

Here I sit in FL, blowing wind, pouring rain and cold as hell!! Shoulda stayed in Hawaii!! LOL Although I did manage to H&L Friday..http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5089/5344761974_4c9fac7c33.jpg

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

The year started out with a bang and then the bad weather set in. Seems like each week a new front rolled in. A good friend Tom Rasdall from Australia came into town and wanted to do some blue water and reef diving so we make plans to meet at my place and we drove over to The Windward side of the island and launched. We had the usual gang of Pete, Diver Joe and another good friend from California Brian Ishida. He was in town to visit family. Our other partner in crime Matt is freezing somewhere in Jacksonville.

At our favorite spots to hang out for the ono's we had slightly hazy vis but could see the bottom 90ft down. I like to hang out above a big slab below because there are two cleaning stations on the top of the slab at 70 ft and sometimes small uluas or other fish come on by to get cleaned and we can sometimes drop down and shoot them. The current was really strong and a Tom followed me to the slab and we hung out. I did some burley to see if anything was going to come around. There was lots of bait and while hanging over the slab, I saw a nice ulua cruising the bottom. Tom saw it too. It went straight to the rock slab and Tome dropped on one side and I took the other. I knew it was going to be on my side since the other side is just a flat wall. There's an over hang on the other side that I hide sometimes to shoot the big mu. Sure enough it was under the overhang. Tom was coming up and I pointed to the overhang to signal the ulua was under there. We came up to breath up and I told Tom to drop down and then look under the slab. It took a while to breath up trying to stay in position. I was going to pay out Tom's float line and when he shoots the ulua, I was going to pull hard to make sure it didn't rock up. I had never dove with Tom, but we both have mutual friends compets with in Australia, so I know he must be your typical awesome Aussie diver.
Tom dropped down and looked under the ledge. At first he didn't see anything so he slid on down to the sand and then saw the ulua. The tag line was almost maxed out and then I heard the gun pop. Hauling up on the float line it just felt heavy. Tom hit the surface and I checked to see that he was ok and he gave the thumbs up sign. But no fish. Then like a bat out of hell the Ulua woke up and started dragging me under. Tom grabbed the float and line and both of us were going on a sleigh ride. We wanted to keep it out of the rocks which were 90-95 ft below and lucky for us it just made a big circle. Tom wrestled the fish up and clipped the shooting line to the float. It made a few runs, but that was all it could do. Tom's new personal best Giant Trevally! 55 lbs!

Back at the boat we did the UW pictures and the customary trophy shots.

Since no one saw any onos, we decided to check out a few more houses. The first house was empty, so Joe went to look for some fish and I swam back to the boat to look for the others. While sitting on the gunnel, I heard Tom call over to me. He shot another ulua! Evidently an Ulua had come back to the house, and Tom went to look inside one more time before coming back to the boat. I got over and second shot it and now he had his second ulua! That was was a hefty 45 lbs.

We went to another house and it was empty. The wind was coming up and we decided to check one more spot. Tom is one of the few divers who did all the instructions on checking out ulua houses to the "T". He dropped down and looked into the house upside down and Bam. He shot his third Ulua! This was an Omilu ulua. It tied up and Joe and I second shot it and we got all the cable unwound from the rocks and brought it up. This ulua was 20 lbs and not far off the old Hawaii state record which was 21 lbs. What a great way to end the day!

After we got in, we headed home for our Sunday BBQ with the family and dive gang. the stories and laughs we had that night were priceless. That's what diving with friends is like.

Aloha, Daryl

[cww180]

Good time with good friends and some nice fish, great job!

[Slingingsteel]

Awesome Daryl! Tom did some work on those Uluas! That is definitely a fish on the top of my list!!!

[JTFspearo]

Solid last report you had there. Waiting for the next.:toast:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

This is a late report with all the friends that have been stopping in town lately and along with the previous months of bad weather.

Vic Dong from the bay area always comes through with his family and we go out diving while he's in town. His family loves to eat fish and we shoot dinner for them. Vic shot some nice fish and I always put him through the dive boot camp. I tell him if he can shoot fish here, he can shoot fish anywhere. The best part of the visit is always the Sunday dinner after diving. We have all the families over and grill the fish and steaks. This year we also went up to Pete's house to watch the 4th of July fireworks. Here's a few pictures to check out. Vic's highlight of the trip was diving and riding a huge manta that came up below our boat.

Aloha,daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

Here is a series of reports. Its been so busy, I'm just now catching up on the reports.

Craig lives in Malibu, but we got to dive together often because he had a lot of Hawaii accounts to check up on while in town. He's been here so many times and brought his gun to hawaii, its his second home! Love it when we can get out for a relaxing day. Because the high surf was in, we stayed on the southside. There Craig was on a mission. Craig's been out for a few months, but being the naturally gifted diver, Craig shot up the southside of the island. We check a small wreck and Craig said he didn't see anything. I went down to check it out and there was a nice ulua behind the struts in the wreck. I shot it and then had to dive a few times to untangle the mess it did when it decided to weave in and out of all the internal ribbing of the wreck. But we got it out. Craig had a blast and we had a great BBQ that evening.

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

Thought I would try to catch up on reports. Been so busy with friends coming to visit, I better catch up before the year is up.
I had a good friend Mohamed who I have known for over ten years from emails and guns and just met up recently because of Sheri Daye's awesome blue wild expo I was able to connect with him when he makes an annual trip to the Blue wild. I told Mohamed that the next time he gets any place that is remotely near to Hawaii, he has to come on by and dive. So he did. Flew in from San Diego after a business trip and we went diving for one day. Had a blast. He can shoot fish anywhere. He's a veteran of Coral sea trips and huge dogtooth tuna, and many other exotic places around the world. He put a hurt on the fish here. One day we'll get out to shoot some bigger fish elsewhere. Maybe the Red sea, Indonesia, who knows. I look forward to seeing him at the next Blue wild where we can plan our next dive adventure.

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

lAloha Gang.

This first time visitor is Dr Corey Fujita. Another fellow USC dental school grad. Only I wish I was his age. Still we both have the same passion for our work and play! Cory was in town for a friends wedding away and was able to sneak away and hang out with the gang for a day. The weather was nice and we gave him the quick tour of the Ulua houses, but they were all on vacation. But he learned about all the fish here and saw first hand that you have to dive a little deeper and stay a little longer to shoot much smaller and wary fish than your usual California sheepshead, calicos, and WSB. What we lack in size, we make up with small skittish tasty fish. One fish we have here is called the Moana Ukali. It is one of the prized goatfish we have here. Wholesale with head and gun it is 10.00/lb and retails for 20.00 at the markets. Steamed at the restaurant, a small fish can command a 50-60 bill. Corey also got to learn about our elusive Mu. Probably one of the smartest fish in the world. Or at least fish that can tell time. I think they wait at least a minute before they start to come and check you out. When in doubt, the wait two minutes. I showed Cory a few tips and techniques and he'll be back to shoot a few big ones the next trip. Cory shot a really nice Moana Ukali and had it steamed with his hosts. Back in California he's one of the WSB kings. Last year he shot too many to count and this year is getting up there too. I'll have to get up and learn from him.

[Sasha]

Congratulations To you Daryl on your upcoming induction to the Hawaiian Spearfishing Hall of Fame. Mega-shakas! Thanx for sharing your knowledge, advice, and friendship.

[OahuFreediver]

I concur with Shasha! Congrats on your induction daryl and great stories as always mohammad shot a beautiful trevally and you deff got a big Moana Ukali chilling in your hands

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

Kyle Barnell is such a great kid. Actually he's all grown up now. He was just out of high school when he got his first Wong gun. Then he had a ybrid tatoo done on his ankle. He's the first guy I know with a Wong gun tat on him! I get to see Kyle at the Blue wild every year. He even did a show with Sheri with speargun hunter. He has Andros island as his home turf and shoots huge fish with a pole spear! He's been wanting to come on over and this summer with his sister getting married on Maui, it was a great excuse to come on over and dive. He wanted to shoot one of our elusive Uluas. He was able to sneak away one from Maui one Sunday so I picked him up at the airport and we got out to my favorite spots. We did some reef diving, but mostly checked out ulua holes. It was one of those days. We could do no wrong. Almost every hole had an Ulua! We checked only a few houses and Kyle was able to shoot his first and second uluas ever! Not bad for a kid from North Carolina. He got the Hawaii dive boot camp too.
Later that evening we met up with the gang and had our Sunday pot luck with cooked fish and some awesome local dishes cooked up by Mrs. Tamura. Everyones surrogate mom.
After dinner we took off for the airport and Kyle was back on Maui and hour later with a lifetime of memories.

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

It was July and my buddy Hank was back in town to visit his newborn grand kid. Hank lived here for years and now is in Belize farming shrimp. The diving is great there, but he and his son Jake had just finished the PFI class and wanted to put it to work with another friend Boy from the Philippines. Jake came over to pick up his new 55 in GR gun and Boy got the same gun too. This was Dive boot camp 101. Being the quick learner Jake is, we were quickly shooting some nice fish. Hank was showing us how to shoot the big blue uhus and Jake was a fast learner.
Hank not to be out done always got back with the biggest fish. One was a 10 lb uhu! Boy is from the Philippines and will be shooting a lot of fish there. Another exotic place for me to get over too..
Its nice to see a father son dive team. Both have their pluses and minuses They should have no problem doing the one up and one down technique. Can't wait till they get back next year!

Aloha,Daryl

[Hank49]

Both have their pluses and minuses l

Pretty hard to compete with a guy who's half fish. :D:notworthy

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/281821_2035176290720_1583599415_1981636_3408893_n. jpg

[diverlen]

Daryl, this from the "professionally retired" guy, you guys certainly know how to have fun. After all, that is what diving is all about for me, going out with friends and enjoying myself. Regards. Len

[dr.ed]

Congratulations To you Daryl on your upcoming induction to the Hawaiian Spearfishing Hall of Fame. Mega-shakas! Thanx for sharing your knowledge, advice, and friendship.

i too concur!!! Daryl you are a great person & diver and personify the spirit of Aloha! :thumps:

[Christo]

Congratulations To you Daryl on your upcoming induction to the Hawaiian Spearfishing Hall of Fame. Mega-shakas! Thanx for sharing your knowledge, advice, and friendship.

X4 :toast:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Guys,

Hank, Moonshine Ed, Bobby, Sasha, Len, Thanks. Diving for me and building guns has always been about getting to know and meet new friends. Its one of the reasons I do the dive shows. Gives me an excuse to get out and have a hospitality booth to meet all my new friends and make new ones. I get to see Len every year and touch base about his great time teaching in Hawaii, and get to see Ed during the holidays and taste some real moonshine. And in the summer see Hank, Boy and Jake to get out and do some diving.
In between its who ever happens to be coming throught town. And if I can breakaway, its off to exotic places to see Bobby in Trinidad, or Surya and Boy in the Phillipines and Indonesia! Its the journey we take that makes life interesting. We all know the destination. So lets enjoy as much as we can with who we can!

Aloha, Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

I had my good friend and fellow Pistolero Dr Craig Peterson over. We're both USC grads and were there at the same time just in different programs. Small world! Also means we're both old but Craigs in far better shape and better looking. I first met Craig in Punta Mita. It was the week after he had just broken the men's world record. Craig's record fish was over 319 lbs. I was down there to shoot tuna. Funny, I was in down in the Revillegigedos isles over ten years ago the week after the previous record Yellowfin tuna was shot. Seems like I'm always a week to late! The new men's record that beat Craig's tuna was shot from the same place by an English gentleman that used my ono gun. It is now 353 lbs.
I just saw Craig this last February at the Legends dive event where I was a guest. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones there. Craig told me he might be over and he did come. We got out and had a blast. I might have another convert. I hope to get up and do some cold water diving with Craig and the Pistoleros next year.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

Colonel Mike was a Captain when I first met him here in Hawaii. He was assigned here at the Kaneohe marine air station. Its right in my back yard and my home dive turf. Of course we would get out as much as we could between his deployments. In the meantime he's gone over to Peru and then onto San Diego where he finally retired to the good life. My hero!!!
Now he's a colonel. We get together when we can and he comes over to visit. His son Paul is all grown up and huge. As you can see he and Mike make me look like a midget!
Both Mike and Paul just recently took the PFI course. I had been after him for years to take it. Well he did and he now has a regular dive buddy in Paul that can dive just like Mike and put a hurt on the fish here and in California.
The weather was terrible when they were in town, but you know my saying.... Somethings dying if I go out. We'll we had a swell time and shot some nice fish as usual. Its always a blast to see old friends and watch how the next generation of divers are doing.

Aloha Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

Its been a rough few months. Got a cold and then sinus infection so diving has been out for a while. Just this weekend got well enough to take a few friends out diving. Between having work done on the boat for two weeks and sick for a month, it was nice to be back out on the water. Sasha a good friend from the big island and Joseba Kerejeta from Spain were in town. Joseba the 2008 Men's spearfishing world champion was in town to train to dive deeper and work on equalizing techniques. This guys dives to 165 ft and needs to train? Just goes to show you that he is always looking to improve his techniques.
Friday after a great Thanksgiving dinner with Sasha, Joseba and the gang, we got out to Kaneohe bay. My favorite stomping grounds. I had an evil plan to get back at the hardest fish to hunt in Hawaii. The elusive MU or Big eye bream. These fish are so smart, a good day is being able to shoot one or two. Then they figure your techniques out and stay away.
For years our gang has been taunted by a few schools of Mu in the deep. They hang out at 75-95 ft and laugh because our bottom time is so limited that they just hang out till we run out of air.
But not today. The Mu have never met someone like Joseba. Four minute bottom time at 35 meters can be deadly to the average diver. Not Joseba. He hangs out down there like he's resting in 3 metes instead of 30 meters. Instead, deadly to the Mu!
We drove over to the spot and I pointed the Mu pile to him. It was a huge pile. First dive to 80ft he hangs out and whacks a nice one. Gives it to Sasha to hang onto. Next dive to same spot and hangs a little longer. Whack another big one! Joseba put on a clinic of how to dive, relax, find a nice spot and be like a rock. Then when the fish is within range of the 55in GR gun, he lifts the gun and Whack.... another fish on the stringer. It was simply amazing to be able to watch someone make shooting the hardest fish to shoot in Hawaii looks like he was shooting fish in a barrel. By the end of the dive he had five big MU. Most of us would be happy with one Mu for the day and many haven't ever shot a Mu. It is more elusive than our big uluas! At the end of the day, Joseba had shot 7 Mu's.
Us mere mortals, Pete, Sasha and I were happy to clean up on the parrots. I was just happy to get back into the water. My sinus's were still plugged but at least I could dive.
For any of you that want to hunt our Mu, practice up. Learn to get a decent bottom time and expect to get skunked often unless you are the Mu Master like Joseba! We can see why he's a world champion.

Our blue water season is starting up and we hope to see the ono's soon!

Aloha, Daryl

[OahuFreediver]

Great story daryl those are some big Mu's! Sasha also puts a lot of reports on spearboard keep em coming guys

[JTFspearo]

Wow!!! Great report, amazing diving by your friend Jozeba. I was just wondering after looking at the pics how old he might be? I really need to get a level 2 class under my belt. Simply amazing the Mu's. :thumps:

[Bill McIntyre]

Incredible!

I couldn't expect to get one Mu in a lifetime, and he gets 7 in one day.

I guess that shows the difference between champions and mere mortals.

[Sasha]

Wow!!! Great report, amazing diving by your friend Jozeba. I was just wondering after looking at the pics how old he might be? I really need to get a level 2 class under my belt. Simply amazing the Mu's. :thumps:

Joseba is 43 years young and is a machine! I'm so stoked, and feel really fortunate to have the opportunity and experience to dive with true masters at the same time. The Shuolin of divers. Daryl's and joseba's techniques through decades of experience is somthin special to witness. I am humbled getting the chance to shadow these guys and watch there prowess unfold. Joseba and I dove BI before we flew out to see Daryl. Unreal this spaniard! Not 5 or 8 or 12, but every dive throughout the day, all day was 3:00 to 4:00 minutes to 80ft-100ft. And NO packing. He charmed a 40# Ono with a two band hybrid with ease. World class skills, and not a shred of foul ego willing to share learned insights.

[Sasha]

Incredible!

I couldn't expect to get one Mu in a lifetime, and he gets 7 in one day.

I guess that shows the difference between champions and mere mortals.

And Kaneohe side no less, the most skittish of fish.
I've seen Daryl land 4 Mu on one dive spot(and 2 ukus)the most I'd seen taken by a diver at one time....until now.

And they say Oahu get no fish?

[jhip]

Awesome story and pics Daryl!

With you three divers on the same boat, no fish is safe!

[Smudge]

I really miss Hawaii!

[Tony S.]

Hello, Dr. Daryl.

It's almost the holidays and no ono reports....I think you and the crew had about a dozen by this time last year.
I like reading your blue water ono stories.

Hope you've recovered and your boat as well, the flu is going around.

Happy hunting.

Tony

[jkvshooter]

Aloha Daryl,
Always nice to read your stories. Not gonna make it over there on a ship this year. I went with Sea-Land (Dutch Harbor, Japan and S. Korea) so, I'm headed the wrong way. I might take a trip off and try and get over there for an Ono if they show up. Anyway, hope all is well. I did end up getting a BFT with that 65" hybrid, just a rat. I can't wait to stick something big with it! Take care and shoot a few for me.

Laters,
Justin

[zenspearo]

Just came by this thread again. Just outstanding. Much respect for the mu's.

[Captn Ron]

great thread Daryl. Joseba is quite the fish! Heading over to the big island. Wish I was making a stop in Oahu but not this time. Take care.....Say hi to Pete for me

[makoa352]

BIG MAHALO'S Daryl for the gracious hosting of me and my sons...again! You, Joe, and Sasha are true gentlemen. Glad to have you guys as ambassadors of our sport and of our Islands. Your humility is a welcome relief from the magazine jockeys that have egos to spare. I believe next dinner is on me. We'll try for better timing next time. Again, mahalo nui for your generosity!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

Its been too long since the last update, but better late than never. Last time out with a guest was with Corey. Since then, the weather was the shits and I had a trip to Indonesia. When I got back the weather was terrible and stayed that way till December! I can't ever remember not going out for two months. But prior to that I caught the worst cold ever and then finished up with a sinus infection. First time I have ever had one. Sucks. December rolled around and it was still nasty, but the blue water season started and will only be here till late Feb.
So the first decent day we got, the gang went out. During the week, I left my boat home and got out with our hero Pete. His zodiac is perfect to drift dive with and since the grounds are outside my house, its only a 5 minute ride to the pier to launch.
We got out and the water was very clean, clear and I want to say warm but for me it was freezing. It was a chilly 71 degrees. Its normally 79-81 degrees. But that day it didn't matter. There was lots of bait and first thing in the morning, I saw a nice fat ono come in. But for some reason it wouldn't go for the flashers and just headed back out to sea. For the rest of the day we saw tons of bait but no onos. By the end of the day we decided to head home, but something told me to go back to the spot we saw the ono in the morning. Its one of my favorites and I have shot my biggest ones there. It was getting late, but we made one last drift at that spot. I was chumming and not seeing anything, when out of the blue down deep, i saw a long grey shape come in. Same like in the morning. The ono came in on the chum to check it out but then saw me above and started to swim away. It was doing the same thing it did earlier. But this time instead of dropping down, I angled towards it as it headed to the surface. We met at about 20 ft and I got a nice shot down on it. Fish on! 10 minutes later we had our first ono of the season! Not a big one, only about 33 lbs but fresh fish after months of being land locked. :thumps:

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Gang,

After my first ono of the season in December, the crappy weather came back and all through the Xmas holidays we had to endure rain, and more rain. Then as if to celebrate the new year, the skies got clear and it got sunny. This meant only one thing. Something was dying out there! Right after new years Diver Joe,my cousin Ron and I took my good friend Dean and his two nephews diving. They wanted to try out their brand new pole spears and shoot some fish to eat. Knowing the onos were in, we asked if we could do a few drift dives before taking them down to a few of my shallows spots. The kids Kainalu, and Kaimi both brought fishing rods to drop bait for bottom fish and Dean was the boat driver.
We went out to my spot where I got the last fish and on about the third drift in that area, I had a nice ono come in. This time it wasn't so smart and swam right up and it was spined! the next drift I saw what I thought was a barracuda and noticed Joe angling down in it. I dropped down to see what it was as it was coming towards me. Joe took a nice shot and he stoned the ono. I thought it was a barracuda till I saw it all lit up with stripes. Two onos and not even 10:00 am! The kids looked a little blue so we decided to stow the big guns and get our pole spears. We headed down to Waikiki and while in the shadow of Diamond head, I found my menpachi hole that was in 15 ft of water. I took the two boys to the spot and the "Uncles" supervised. They had a blast. But the cold water which was still 71 degrees took its toll and after an hour or so they were shivering like wet pups. They went back to the boat to warm up and the "uncles" Dean, Joe and I went to town. The ledge with the menpachi hole has a few other holes that were full of nice red menpachi. I even found a huge Red goatfish or Kumu that was only .10 th of a lb off the state pole spear record. By about 2:00 pm even we were freezing and decided we had enough. What a day. Its times like these that brings back memories of diving with friends and kids. Joe's Ono set a new record at 10 lbs, and my fish was 36 lbs. More fresh fish. I was more proud of the big Kumu which we ate that night at our Sunday BBQ and potluck!

Aloha,Daryl

[malibujohn]

looks beautiful. The ono shot with diamond head in the backdrop is awesome. Keep em coming!!

[Ryfish]

Awesome!

[OahuFreediver]

Great fish Daryl congrats on a big kumu I bet the kids had a blast pokn them menpachi. When did you do this dive I thought the ones were long gone by now. Il be giving you that call tomm can't wait to get out with that new gun. Grabbed a tako today and took a roi off the reef on the west side today. It's awesome to be back in the water.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Due to crappy weather and a president that likes to vacation just inside of one of my favorites spots, we couldn't get out to the northeast side where some of the best spots are. Instead we went outside of my house and finished up the month of January with a few more fish. This was a very slow year. The onos came in late, and were on the small side. I had heard of guys shooting onos under 25 lbs, but normally they come in averaging about 35-45 lbs. During the week on my day off, I went out with our hero Pete. He's 76 years old and going strong. The onos were not schooling up and we'd only see singles and sometimes doubles. This year they are very skittish. I was able to get four ono's in January. The new years onos with the kids and three others. The big one was 50 lbs and the other one 40 and 37 lbs . Pete with a 42 lb ono was the ono king till the big one beat it out. Dr Phil finally got his first ono of the year on the 9th. He was the only one to see on that day and he made it count. That day the water was cold and murky. I have given up and Phil's persistance paid off. He shot a nice 4o lb one.
Thats the nice thing about Hawaii. Blue water season is during the holidays and just outside my house. If only the tuna would come in!:thumps:

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

February brought more rain, but enough clear days that we could get out. Our dive buddy Justin Villot from California came into town with his wife to get some sunshine and maybe shoot his first ono. He has been to Mexico, Costra Rica, and the sea of cortez but no luck.
Now the the president went back to Washington, we decided to check out our friend Chomper and to see if the onos were on the Northeast side. It was blowing but since it was offshore the water wasn't too rough. Justin got to play with Chomper and we all fanned out to see if any ono's were around.
As I was watching some chum drift down and looking at the Trigger fish come and eat all the bait, I saw a grey shape sliding by. It was a nice ono coming in to look at the triggers. It swam through the chum and by the time it saw me, I was already down on it. I got a nice shot on it and it was game on! It took a while to get it in with a shot high on its back. But hey, if its in the boat, its a good shot! After I put the fish in the boat, I swam back out and then noticed Justin on the boat. I thought he was resting. I told him to check out the ono in the bag. He yelled back that he saw it. Later when we got back, there were two in the bag! Justin had shot his just as I was swimming back out. He landed it and put it in the bag with mine. Nice day. Two onos and we go a see a few others but no shots taken.
We took our ono pictures and found out that Justin got the ono monkey off his back. This was his first ono!!! He was stoked. Best of all he shot it with a Super mag just like his gun. He borrowed my extra gun.
Later that evening, we enjoyed the Ono steaks at the BBQ and Justin loaded up his fish to take back home later.
Great way to start the month!

Aloha,Daryl

[makoa352]

Wouldn't expect any less! Very nice onos. Joe passed along the report of your guys uluas and onos from the last dive together. Please save some of that Wong magic for when the boys and I are on O'ahu again. My treat for dinner next time. Thanks again for your positive vibes and humble ambassadorship of our sport.


Aloha!

[Sasha]

Killin it always! Beautiful 50#ah. Stickin Ono with sky scrapers in the background, gotta love Hawaii. Where's Uncle Pete's 50+?

[jkvshooter]

Aloha Daryl,
It seems like forever since I was back there. After I got home I didn't have much time to get ready for gettin back to sea. I've got one trip down and 2 more to go for the year, so July 2 I'm all done. I did manage 3 seabass the week before I shipped out (64# was the biggest), so it wasn't all that bad. Thanks again sooo much for the aloha and hospitality. Rhonda loved the family BBQ and can't wait to get back there. Looks like there is a real chance I'll be moving back! Woohoo! I was stoked to get the ono monkey off my back. I really can't believe it had taken so long, I felt jinxed! anyway, hope you guys are doing well. What's up Jo, how's the new GoPro? Looking forward to hearing how the rest of your seaon turned out.

Stay well,
Justin

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

Its been such a busy year its hard to keep up on the reports. This years been spotty with the weather, but we still go out unless its a hurricane. And our motto many times is... "somethings dying out there when we go out". It means we will be shooting something to take home for our Sunday BBQ with the gang. We also usually have some fish orders from friends. The last time it was for a graduation party for two of our good friends daughter and nephew. Another 4-500 hungry guests at the luau! This time we made sure we got enough Kole for the party. Diver Joe and I spent a few dives using only one pole spear between the two of us and doing a one up and one down technigue that is hard to beat. With only one spear we can spear more fish than others can do with a spear with each diver. We have a system of spearing the fish and then handing off the spear to each other. While one partner is down the other is breathing up.

The Uluas are in now. Its our annual Ulua season. They come in large numbers starting in May and ending in late summer. Joe started the season off with his firs big ulua that went 65 lbs. Then we had a dry spell with a bunch of smaller ones. But lately we have been seeing some big ones but the timing hasn't been right. But if you put in enough time the law of averages will catch up.
Lately Nate Fukuwa, Ryan Devine, and James Callahan have been coming out with us to learn the ropes and get some diving in. They are all active duty and are now back in Hawaii after deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and ship duty. They'll be hear only a few months and it back off to another deployment. They have learned so fast and are hard core who just want to dive and shoot fish. another new comer is Katy Adamson,
She's a waterman and does dive tours that swim with the dolphins and has two years deck hand experience on my friend Rob Torelli's Coral sea trips. She's moved to Hawaii and loving it. When she can, she gets out with us to shoot fish and learn as much as she can. With a little more spearing time, she'll be doing some damage.

The last few dives have been pretty good. We've been seeing the uluas and just now the big ones are showing up. We've seen some over 70 lbs and one or two huge ones.
The deep hole that Joe shot his big fish was full of fish a few weeks ago. I got down just as a few were leaving. There were easily four or five in the 80 lb range but the closest one to me was the one I shot. It ended up tying up deep in the lave tube. Joe went down to put a kill shot and came up with the gun and said it was way in the middle about 30ft in and wedged in a crack. I took my time to breath up and then took the gun to take a look. Joe was right. It was way in and wedged in a crack sideways. It was so dark I couldn't make out the head so I just aimed for what I thought was the middle. I got lucky. It pissed off the ulua and it charged out of the crack and then tied up near the entrance. We kept the tension on so it couldn't run back in. I was finally able to get down and cut my line and we brought it up on Joe's line. That thing kicked our butts.

On Fathers day I saw a nice Ulua in a house we check regularly. I only had my barbed shaft so instead of chancing it, I swam back to the boat and got my ulua gun with slip tip, , cable shooting line and 1000 lb test dyneema on my reel. I got James to come and back me up. But when I got there, the big one had left and only a small ulua was still inside. I shot that one and it was a nice fat one at 28 lbs.

This past Sunday I went back to check the two uluas houses. The big slab had an ulua in it and it came so close to me the shaft blew right through and it ended up on the shooting line. What a mess. Took about 6 dives to unhook the cable and bring it up.
Once that was done we took it to the boat and re rigged. The other house was 200 yds away and we were going to see if the big ulua was back.

When we got to the hole, there was a big ulua being cleaned at the edge by a cleaner wrasse. It went into the lave tube and I quickly dropped down to shoot it. By the time I saw it, it was at the far end of the hole ready to leave.. But for some reason it turned around and came in broad side to me. I hit it in the cheek with the shaft going through the head. It went nuts. But it finally calmed down and I put another shaft in it. In the meantime James had a fish on his shaft. I went back down and freed up his fish which ended up 14 lbs with all the guts and stomach gone from a huge eel,

Since the weathers been spotty, we're going to check out ulua houses since they never move. Still looking for that one 100 lber.

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Since the last update either the weathers been crappy or the guys have been off island hunting or family things. But just the other weekend my cousin Ron asked if we had room for him and his son Ryan. Turns out we were the only ones out. The weather was windy, rainy, and rough. The water was pretty green with limited vis so we decided to check a few ulua houses. On the first warm up dive in 12ft of water, I checked a ledge and got a freebie. There was a school of small white uluas and I was being schooled by 5-8 lbers till one nice one came by. It ended up at 21lbs. Not bad for a first shot. The next two houses were empty so we moved on. The next one was a little deep for Ron so I went down to check. This house had one white ulua and a few small Omilu's. Shot the white and ended up with a 17 lber.
The next Ulua was another freebie. Waithing on the bottom under a ledge, a freeswimming omilu came right up and he ended on the shooting line. A nice 14 lber. Looking for fish at the next spot, I saw a tail duck under a ledge. It didn't come out so I went down and took a look. Another nice Omilu. This one tangled up around a rock and before I could take it out, a huge eel was eating the poor guy while it was stuck. Took about a 1.5 lb chunk of meat out and then left when it got full. I got it out and it was a decent fish.
Then I checked another house with Ron. He went down on one end and I blocked the other. He didn't see anything, but I waited a bit longer and sure enough, there was a nice one sliding along in the dark side of the wall. I shot it as it was just about to leave. We got that out.
The last spot was the deep hole. At the archway it had a bunch of uluas and omilus. The three white uluas looked about 30 lbs. I dropped down and as they were turning around in the pocket to leave, I shot the middle sized fish. The big one was a bit to far and the small one was going too fast. The middle one just cruised towards me and I planted the slip tip in his head. We second shot that fish and when it came up, it was bigger than we thought.
A nice 62lber.
We didn't end up with much fish but they were all good sized. One of the first times we shot more uluas and Parrot fish.
Its now ulua season so they are schooling up and the big ones hanging around in the shallows.
Still looking for that three digit fish!

Aloha,Daryl

[alemaozinho]

Hey Daryl,thanks for sharing your experience,nice pictures too!

[fishnstix]

geezus. makin me sick over here. nice killing.

[North Star]

Nice pile of fish! And that green gun to your right doesn't look too bad either. Any idea who the manufacturer is?;)

[steepNdeep]

Looks like an awesome year to me - some great fish! How do you prepare ulua to eat? Are they much different than GT's in the southern pacific?

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Ulua are prized both as a trophy fish and also can be great tasting. You can find them on the menu in many of the five star restaurants when they can get some.
The best way to eat them in my opinion is to saute them in garlic and butter. Because the uluas are usualy big, its very important to not over cook them. Like many fish, over cooking will bring about a very dry bland texture. More so in a big ulua. The best sizes to eat are actually the 25-40 lb size. The meet is firm not tough and also can be eaton Sashimi style.
When we return from diving and everyone wants to eat some Ulua, we grill it.
Diver Joe has a great style. He marinates its in Italian or whatever salad dressing he finds in my refrigerator and then he wraps it in T leaves and then wraps it in foil. He grills one side for 5 minutes and then the other side. The take the fish off, Unwraps the steaming fillet and we all jump in to devour it.
You can do this with just about any fish and it will come out great. Grouper, Hogfish,striper, wsb. These are all fish we have done like this.

Aloha,Daryl

[SPEARSnBEERS]

It's always a pleasure reading your posts, Mr. Wong. I would love the opportunity to dive with you all one day when I'm back in Hawaii - even if just to watch. You always have a stellar report to share with us. Great haul and beautiful Tevally!

[fishnstix]

ulua=GT

[steepNdeep]

That sounds great! Thanks Daryl. Now I gotta eat something... :toast:

[jkvshooter]

Stoked to read more stories and see pics, Daryl. Hope you get your 100 pounder! Tell everyone aloha for me! Might be able to get over there for a bit after we get home from Indo. The Super Mag shoots like a laser! LOVE IT!

Stay well,
Justin

[jdnieman]

I love your steamed fish recipe! I usually foil wrap fish on top of veggies with a touch of watered down soy, ginger and sugar for the steaming moisture (use very sparingly). I use the veggies to keep the fish out of the fluid/drippings.

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha All,

Well, its been a while but the gang has been diving. Mostly small reef fish and a few uluas here and there. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately so I have been going out even during the week on my day off.
Last week I went out with a Dr Phil and we thought we would check to see if the onos have come in. Unfortunately they haven't yet, but we'll keep trying. Because the water has been so flat, we've been able to hit up spots that normally has surf. Very shallow areas that no one hits because with any small swell the vis is only about 5 ft.
Phil and I went to check out one spot. He went on one side of the boat and I took off to the other side. I love this spot. Its only 8-10ft and fishy. Only problem is that the vis usually sucks. This day the water was flat, but there was still a small swell making the vis only about 10 ft. But I like this spot because there is a resident school of Chubs or Nenues that the small white uluas or GT's like to hang out with. If you find the school and lay on the bottom the whole school will come and check you out. We've never shot anything big but lots of 5-15 lb uluas when they are there.
This day the vis was about 8ft. But I found the big nenues. While laying on the bottom, they would come by and all the small white uluas would stream by. I found one about 13 lbs and got it back to the boat. I reloaded and then went back out. I found the school again and as they would come in like ghosts out of the misty murk, I was shocked to see at least five uluas following. The biggest was huge and swam right up to me. It was so close I strung it through the head and it ended up on my reel line. It took off and was about 50 ft away going nuts on the spectra line. Rather than try to stab it, I went back to the boat to grab a second gun. By the time I got back, the Ulua had straightened out my clip! Sucks. Just another fish story without anything to show.

Sunday, Joe and I took out Keoni who is visiting from Alaska. He's from Maui but in town to relax with family and friends. We did the same thing as Wed and checked out a few ono spots but no onos. So it was back to shooting fish. I suggested we go over to the spot I lost the big ulua. They must be in spawning or something since we haven't seen big ones there before.
This time the vis was better and Joe and Keoni went on one side and I went on the other direction from the boat. The Nenue school was usually nearby. Joe asked me why I was taking the slip tip and cable ulua gun instead of my fish gun. I said this time if I run into the school I'll be prepared.
Within 50 yards of the boat, I found the school. This time they were going under and in and out of a ledge. I looked under and there must have been over 30 uluas underneath and one huge one. I took my time and shot the big one in the head and it took off. I tried to slow it down but the reel was cavitating. When it stopped I started to follow the line. I found the cable, shaft and no fish!!! The spectra had cut and now I had about a 100ft of line to untangle from under and around the ledges the fish went under.

After I was cleared, I dejectedly swam back to the boat like a dog with its tail between its legs. I did t everything by the book. Next time no spectra. Only cable for Uluas. They are too powerful for the spectra. Especially of they can pull against a stuck cable or shaft in the rocks. When got back to the boat, Joe was sitting on the swim step holding a 90 degree bent shaft.
I said "you too?" then he gave me that Diver Joe grin and pointed to the biggest Ulua he's shot this year! It was a 74 lb Monster. Said it kicked his ass!!!

He said it was with a school of smaller uluas under a ledge just like mine. He shot it and it went nuts. He thought it was still on when the line didn't go out, but then noticed a huge fish flopping around in the sand. He had shot it in the eye and the shaft came out the butt. It had snapped his line but couldn't swim and was flopping around. Joe was able to grab the shaft and between the fish slamming him with its tail and him stabbing it with his knife, he was able to subdue it!

I guess it shows its sometimes better to be lucky, than good!!! I did all the right things and still lost a nice fish and Joe was in the right place at the right time. the legend of Diver Joe lives on!!

Aloha,Daryl

[jdnieman]

Yeah Brah! Nice fish! A wrestling knife fight....that I would have liked to see!

[2fishin2]

I hate GTs. Once you think you have them figured out where they can be found regularly, best equipment to use, know how to shoot them, here comes one or 2 that totally ruin everything for ya!

But actually I love them and a good fish story! Thanks Dr Wong!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

It was so nice, Some of the gang went out dive during the week. This time it was Dr Phil and Katie. The weather was super nice and we got an early start. Good thing because as we were rounding the point, my engine bogged down. I checked the fuel filter and it was at 15 vacumn. I switched to the other filter and it read the same. Turned to have both filters and they both said the same. Something was clogging my fuel line before the filter. I turned around and we limped back. Just off the head bouy, the engine died and wouldn't start. Luckily we had a boat coming in and they towed us back. At home I called McGiver Diver Joe. He said to check the fuel line coming from the tank. I undid the hose and there was no fuel coming out..
It should have been a Geyser. In the tube was huge hunk of alge that had collected there. I made a wire with a hook and was able to get the ball of dark green crud out. Boy did it make a mess when the diesel gushed out.
But hey it was only 9:00 am. I bled the lines and ran the engine for a half hour. Then it was back to the pier and we were on our way again at 10:30 am. Better late than never.

We quickly decided we would shoot fish. We went to a few old spots since the huge 25ft surf on the north side had caused a lot of wrap around which stirred up the water. Many places it was milky green.
Katie ended up showing up the guys with two of her Uhus. One was a person best at 8 lbs.
Dr Phil was his old self shooting the prized Kumu and erradicating some invasive Rois.
On the last spot we thought we would go and check out the shallow area that Diver Joe found his big 74 lb ulua and I lost mine. The water there was milky with about a 7ft vis, but I had the spot marked.
The plan was for Phil and Katie do come on in to the boat the same way Joe and Keoni did hoping to swim over the same hole. I would go back to the other side and hopefully find the ulua house or the Nenues.

Again I jumped over the side with a slip tip shaft and cable. This time the slip tip had a 900 lb cable on it. The vis was terrible. I kept getting that feeling that something big might be around with the channel so close by. About ten minutes later I found or the nenue school or they found me. They came by and sure enough, a few big uluas were with them I shot the biggest one as they sped by but it was good body shot. This time I had that sucker. My line went out so fast it made a groove in the fingers of my glove. I quickly followed to line to find my shaft in a circle with a pigtails throughout the cable and no fish!!! It had ripped off the cabled slip tip. Dejectedly I made it back to the boat and switched out to my barbed shaft to shoot fish. I shot a nice uhu, then a nice Kumu and on the third drop the nenues came by. Another bunch of Uluas streamed by and I took my best shot. I hit one smack in the gill plate. My line went out and then slacked. The Mono had parted at the sharkfin. It parted in the same place Diver Joe's did. Inside the line saver. I found my shaft a few yards away all bent up.
Now I was really down. Three fish and nothing to show.
I got back on the boat and thought how can I have lost two fish! I saw Katie and Phil just outside the boat and then looked back to the other side. There was a large white object floating on the surface only ten feet away. Drifting towards the boat. It was an Ulua with a bloated belly! I grabbed the only gun left on the boat. Katies Rob Torrelli gun and loaded a band. I didn't even put on fins. Just my mask. The fish was only 5 ft from the boat and I didn't know if it was still alive. I shot it and it didn't move. I got in in the boat and then could hear Katie and Phil. Katie was very animated. They saw me and then headed my way.

Katie had found the ulua house. She said it was so full she wondered how they could all fit. She thought how could she miss they were so packed in there. With all the excitement, Katie doesn't even remember if she aimed. Of course she hit the only emty wall in the hole!

Thats Ok. I know where to look now and I have that spot memorized. Sunday, Diver Joe show'd that sometimes its better to be lucky than good.
Today it was more of the same. My fish wasn't as big as Joe's but just as exiting at 45 lbs.

Aloha,Daryl

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

Man, the years going by fast. The weather is finally settling down and the gang has been able to get out again. We've hit some old spots and its like finding new grounds again!
Katie the new fish Killer has been getting some nice fish and its great to see someone progress as fast as her!
October was a good month for us. I got a few nice fish and also broke my world record MU! I was with Dr Phil on a cold over cast drizzly day and on the last dive, I shot a huge mu! Didn' think it was that big till we got home and weighed it on my scale. Took it to the fish block to certify it and took a bunch of pictures. Also shot some nice uluas.
The onos will be coming in soon and hopefully the next few months will be reports of big onos!
Oh, Katie's B friend gave her an early Xmas present so she didn't have to keep borrowing my gun. Check it out. For all of you Gator fans!!!!

Aloha,Daryl

[Sasha]

Nice Ulua Daryl! Katie's been kickin some tail! I'm surprised you not put her on the women's Ulua Rec yet.

[Hank49]

Nice Ulua Daryl! Katie's been kickin some tail! I'm surprised you not put her on the women's Ulua Rec yet.

Funny you should mention that...:D....I saw it almost happen and predict it won't be long......:thumps:

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha,

I missed some posts of fish we shot at the end of the year, but I'll put this one in since its our first successful trip out this year.

The weathers been the shits since Thanks giving. We've only been able to get a out a few times to look and then got shut down from Xmas and New years holidays.

This past Sunday was the first time it got nice so me got out to do some scouting. The locals haven't been connecting with the onos here and the ones caught have been really small. Diver Joe thinks its a late season. We all hope he's right.
At our favorite spot we finially saw some onos! I had Dr Ed from West Virginia, Dr John from Hawaii, Katie, and my self. The onos showed up like ghosts and both John and Ed got off shots. They both missed since its been a while since we've seen them. I got over to see them both loading and the onos circling below. I dropped down and shot a nice one just behind the head and it took off. But by the time I caught up to the bouy it had torn off or been eaten. Bummer.

We then went to another spot and John hit one but it tore off. We ended up limping with our tails between out legs but hoping for good weather to continue so that we could redeem ourselves.

Wed the water was flat and Dr John, our buddy Al Hanson from San Diego, Katie a new upcoming young lady diver to watch out for, and my other dive buddy Dr Phil. No not that one.
We all set out for our favorite spot and within a hour of cruising on the surface I had a ghost come in on me and when it turned, I got a nice solid shot into it. No fancy head shots this time. Lost the last fish doing that. This ono was hurt bad and after a short run it came up pretty easy. It looked nice size when I got back to the boat. When the onos just fit into the fish bag they are close to 50 lbs.
While I was putting the fish away, I heard Al yell that the onos were coming in. Then next thing I know he's behind the boat with a nice ono! He spined his out of a school of Four onos. He dropped a flasher and one of the onos peeled away and came right up to him.

The other divers would see onos coming in twos, fives, and singles but they seemed to be very skittish and only two shots were taken and both missed. By lunch time we were pretty tired so we decided to go into the shallows and see if there were any Uluas home. I took Katie to her Ulua house but it was empty. The other house nearby had two uluas and I was able to shot a nice 28 lb one. Then it was back to drifting for onos.

The last drifts were unproductive. No onos came by and the water got murky so we headed in. Its nice to be able to finally get out and see some nice fish!

Aloha, Daryl

[Finbreaker]

Hey Daryl! Great to see Katie out there having a great time. She was a crew member on a charter boat we took out to the Coral Sea in 2010 and she was very seaworthy even back then. It makes me feel a little old to see her coming up the ranks now as a top female spearo but I am proud to say I knew her in the early days. I am about to take my laser accurate GR hybrid down to Baja in Feb. to stock up my freezer. Thanks for making the great guns and tell Katie Ken Oakes says Aloha! I agree with Sasha, put Katie on that WR Ulua soon!

[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Ken,

Great to hear from you. Blast some nice ones down in Baja. Then come on over to Hawaii and shoot some onos. They are in right now. Just need the weather to cooperate.

Here's our dive report for this past Sunday.

We went out to the same spots but we only saw the same single ono. It came by me first and looked at the flasher, then turned away toward the other guys. They dropped flashers and the ono turned away and wasn't interested. We spent 3 hours freezing in the 73 degree water and then decided to shoot some fish. We made two dives. The first dive I shot a nice 60 lb ulua. If Katie was here and shot it, it might have been a new record. Thats ok She'll have to come out next Sunday and try. We shot a few Uhus for dinner and to give away and it was then back to drift diving. After only seeing a few sharks and crystal clear cold water, we called it a day. There's always the next time!

Aloha,Daryl

[Sasha]

Another bruiser! Looks like you guys had fun.

......Young or lucky can't beat experience!

[Finbreaker]

Wow, beautiful Ulua! Thanks for the invite, Daryl. Don't be surprised if I take you up on that offer soon!

[SpearMax]

Beautiful fish Daryl!

.

http://www.spearboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=184224&d=1358834905

[Qdiver911]

Daryl, we look forward to seeIng you at the Nationals this year! Look us up, clavinR has a spot on the boat as do you. Be like old times, cheers. As always Qdiver911@anchordivingservices.com

[laguna80]

You guys ever drift out in hi Kai? I was on Oahu the second and third week of January. Water was super nice out aside from the east swell and I saw a lot of divers out when I was trolling the 40 fathom line. Only managed one short strike out of 4 days of fishing. :(

[Hank49]

I drifted somewhere out there in Dec with Daryl and gang. He blindfolded me :D until I got in the water though so I couldn't really see where we were but I could see Portlock. But it was not my day. No ono showed up.

[Hat-Nasty]

Nice fish, as always, Daryl.

Look forward to seeing you at the Blue Wild this weekend. I'm ready to bring my Wong to Hawaii and let it hunt its native waters. I'm coming to Hawaii for 2 weeks in June, (8th-23rd). Hopefully we can find a way to get in the water together.

Will

[Sasha]

1 dive, less than an hour, 4 Mu. 1 Mu every 12min. Nice Daryl!